Hidden Abilities
by DarkSword512
Summary: Tails finds that he has a dark power inside of him, ready to awaken. Can he control his new-found powers that it gives him, or will he be unable to cope and let it take him over? Rated T for very mild violence.
1. Happy Birthday!

My first fanfic :o Basically one about my favourite Sonic character Tails :) Might change the name a few times, I haven't thought up of a final name yet. I usually leave it to the end so I don't really need to base the story around anything.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic or any related characters. They are copyright Sega. I own this story, but that's about it. :) Don't get me done for copyright pleaseh?

This story is set after the Sonic X series. Tails has got over Cosmo's death and Shadow managed to make it back in one piece. Again.

Anyway, it's the middle of winter :) Not saying anything else, so read on and I hope you enjoy.

P.S. _Italisized_ words are thoughts, underlined words are emphasized words.

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Chapter 1: Happy birthday!

It was a dull, winter day in Mobius. Dull for the fact that it's snowing. A heavy blizzard had hit overnight, covering the landscape with a blanket of pristine white snow. Now the morning, it had settled down and the snow flakes fell peacefully, undisturbed by the raging torrents of the previous night's wind. Untouched, it was one of the most beautiful sights that had been seen for a while. As everyone in the area awoke and threw open their curtains, they were dazzled by the snow. Already, the children were wolfing down their breakfasts in order to get outside and make snowmen, snow angels and start snowball fights. Some had skipped breakfast and were already getting wrapped up warm. A blue hedgehog wrapped in a scarf and a thick jacket strolled casually through the town with a large plastic bag. Sonic was careful not to run, incase someone was stung by the mini blizzard that his velocity would create. Instead he just strolled on through at normal walking pace, looking around at the children that had skipped breakfast or already finished it. Despite he was adapted to all weathers except flash floods (given the fact that he can't swim) the 20 degrees below freezing was enough to catch anyone unprotected a cold, which is something he didn't want on this special day. _Man, it's snowed so much, I bet even Egghead is enjoying himself. _An image of Eggman making snow angels and having a snow ball fight with Bocoe, Decoe and Bokkun popped into Sonic's head. Trying to save himself from embarassment by randomly bursting out laughing in the middle of a street, he surpressed his giggle as subtly as he could. Reaching the edge of town, he made sure no one was nearby and that the bag was securely on his arm before blasting off at 100 mph towards Angel Falls.

Sonic's destination was peaceful. The home built into the mountain was covered in snow. The peacefulness of the outside matched that of the inside. Not a single thing stirred. In the workshop of the large house, an orange-yellow coloured, twin-tailed fox sat on a chair and was fast asleep on the drawing board. Evidently, he was the only one in the area that hadn't noticed it was snowing. Sonic came through the front door upstairs from the workshop, into the living room/kitchen combined. He seen the door leading down to the workshop still wide open. _Poor thing must have been up all night..._ Sonic wondered as he crossed the room to the door and headed downstairs to the workshop.

The workshop itself is actually very big. Actually, only one small section is a workshop. The rest is one large hangar holding two planes. One is the legendary Tornado, a blue biplane with a propellor on the front. It's able to transform into a second fighter mode that made the small biplane faster and more formidable against foes than it was previously. The second is the larger and faster of the two, the X-Tornado. Unlike the original model, this one is a fighter jet. With it's larger passenger capacity, faster top speed, handling and acceleration and its ability to transform into a walking mode, the X-Cyclone, giving it the advantage of being almost all-terrain. It's stabalising wings on the front gives it it's name, since they form an X shape when fully deployed. Sonic thought of a time that he and his best buddy, Tails, had a race with Tails in the fighter. Sonic had reached absolute top speed (which was passed the sound barrier) and still the large fighter managed to keep up with him, which was also at top speed. It was the first thing that was able to match Sonic's speed to date and he was proud of his adopted little brother of creating such a powerful machine, and wondered if Tails' brilliant mind would come up with a way of making it even faster to beat Sonic entirely.

Sonic crossed the workshop part of the room to the sleeping , grubby fox. He had most likely done some modifications to the X-Tornado since his tools were scattered across the ground of the hangar near the jet. Careful not to arrouse him too suddenly, he placed a hand on Tails' shoulder. Tails half opened his eyes immediately, and started to sit up. 'Huh?' the still half asleep fox muttered before looking round for the source. Spotting Sonic, he sat up, rubbed his eyes and began to wake up. 'Morning Sonic. What time is it?' Tails asked, looking round for a non existent clock. He kept forgetting to install one somewhere.

'Half ten in the morning, bud. You've missed out on the snow aswell.' Sonic explained to the bewildered fox. 'Aww man, it's been snowing? And I've missed it?' Tails exclaimed, clearly not realising he had misinterpreted what had just been said. Sonic decided to play a prank and said 'yup. It's all melted away now. Guess a snowball fight will have to wait until next year, it won't be snowing any time soon.' Tails groaned at the news, murmured something about never sleeping in again and decided to stand up and stretch. Then Sonic told him that the snow was infact still there, and that he hadn't missed out on anything. Seeing the bag hanging loosely from Sonic's arm he quickly became curious and asked 'hey Sonic, what's in the bag?'. Tails had clearly forgotten what day it was. Sonic had spent a lot of time preparing this special day, and the super intelligent fox manages to forget. Tempted to keep his little brother on the tips of his toes, he simply said 'you go get cleaned up first, then I'll tell you.' Tails wasn't entirely convinced, but after realising that he was grubby he gave Sonic an awkward look of confusion before setting off upstairs for a shower. Sonic followed him up to the living room, where he split off for the kitchen to cook the kit his favourite breakfast.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Tails came out of the shower and started to dry himself off with a towel. _Wow, something sure smells nice. And I recognize that smell anywhere..._ Tails thought with a pleased grin on his face, knowing that Sonic had just cooked his favourite breakfast. Then his expression suddenly changed to one of confusion as he thought _wait... Why is Sonic treating me like this all of a sudden? I haven't done anything special recently. Infact no one has, we haven't seen Eggman since our outer space adventure._ His mind, however, wandered back to the delicious aroma. _Mmm... chilli dogs... bacon... beans. Ands scrambled egg on toast..._ This last thought then made a revelation in Tails' mind of Eggman on toast. Bursting out laughing, he put his towel in the laundry basket and headed downstairs.

The plates were already on the table, and Sonic was just about to start his. Before taking a bite he said 'you took your time.' Giving out a short 'heheh,' Tails sat down at the table and began to eat. After a few minutes, the brothers finished off and wiped their faces. 'So you gonna tell me what's in the bag now Sonic?' Tails asked, clearly curious on why his brother would wait until after breakfast and Tails had had a shower before telling him. 'You haven't forgotten anything important have ya Tails?' Sonic said, giving Tails a look that clearly said he was teasing him. Tails, although registered his expression, thought for a moment, then shook his head. 'Not that I know of...' Tails began to get troubled over this puzzling question and looked like he phased out into his own world to see if he could remember the forgotten object. 'What about a certain event a certain someone has been looking forward to for the past month?' Again, Sonic teased him with a question that could easily lead to a misconception. Then something clearly sparked off in Tails' mind, because his face lit up like a light bulb. 'Oh yeah! It's my birthday! I must of forgot because I was so busy last night!' after this revelation, Tails put his hand behind his back, with a guilty expression and said 'heheh, oops...' Sonic let out a short chuckle before revealing his present. 'Happy 9th birthday bro' Sonic said with a smile, handing the now eager fox his present. Unwrapping it, he found a brand new set of tools. It was the latest of the models, and Tails had been meaning to buy it, but kept putting it off for more important matters. Tails looked at it for a moment in amazement, before cracking a smile and hugging his brother. 'Thanks Sonic!'

'Hey, don't sweat it,' Sonic replied, also smiling.

Half an hour past, and most of the crew had now come to Tails' house to wish him a happy birthday. Knuckles taught Tails some fighting attacks to improve on the kit's physical combat. Knuckles wasn't sure that he would like it because Tails normaly fought with his brain rather than his arms and feet, but luckily for him, the birthday boy jumped at the idea like a mountaineer given the opportunity to scale Everest. Amy said Tails had to wait until later for his present, saying that it would smell good. Tails took an educated guess that Amy had cooked him a birthday dinner. _Heh, I wouldn't be surprised if she cooked up a special one for Sonic_ Tails thought to himself. A knock on the door, and Tails hurried over to answer. There stood Cream, Cheese and Vanilla in thick woollen clothing and partly covered in snow. Cream and Cheese's back in particular, which probably meant they stopped to make snow angels. Or in this case, a snow bunny and chao. 'Happy birthday Tails!' Cream greeted the fox as he let them through. 'Chao Chao!' chimed in Cheese, handing over a card three times the size of it to Tails. 'Thanks Cheese!' Tails said with a now over joyfully tone of voice from all the excitement now going around as he took the card. It was a poorly drawn picture of everone, with Tails in the middle jumping for joy, with the words 'happy birthday!' below it. Tails smiled as he opened the card, and nearly chuckled at the message inside. It said 'To Tails. Happy birthday! From Cream, Cheese and Vanilla!' Well actually, it was more of 'To Tales! Hapy Birfday! From Cream, Cheese and Vanilla!' Evidently, Cream or Cheese had written this, and haven't mastered the art of spelling correctly. He thanked them nonetheless, and places it on top of the television with the others. He liked it mostly because of the fact the way the words were actually spelled, but also the picture on the front. It doesn't need to be a good picture to look nice. Vanilla apologised for not having a present for him, but they weren't sure what he would like and Sonic had got the only thing they were sure he would be pleased by. Tails gladfully accepted the apology, saying it didn't matter and they shouldn't let it trouble them. As everyone got ready to play around in the snow, something came through the post. Tails walked over to it to find it was the newspaper. He picked it up, and scanned the front page. And then all of a sudden, everyone burst into a chorus of 'happy birthday to you!' After they finished, they realised that Tails hadn't moved a muscle. He was just staring at the newspaper. Sonic walked over to him and waved a hand infront of the frozen fox. 'Mobius to Tails, anyone home?' Sonic asked. Still no response. He clicked his fingers a few times infront of the fox. Nothing. Sonic followed Tails' line of sight, which landed on the front page of the newspaper. The confused hedgehog read the front headline, which said:

'Professor Amadeus Prower invents Mobius' smartest robot'.

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Note: Amadeus Prower is Tails' father according to one of the official comics (not sure which one). So I just adopted it for the purpose of this FanFic. :P Although what he is meant to be is different from this fanfic. He's originally meant to be a war veteran, but I've changed him to a professor.


	2. The Conference

Hope you liked the cliffhanger :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic or related characters. All copyright are of Sega and Sonic Team. I think Amadeus and Rosemary are owned by Archie comics, correct me if I'm wrong. I own this story, and that's it. :)

We left the birthday boy looking at the news that mentioned his father creating a new robot. Not gonna say much, so here it is :) A nd I know the meeting between Tails and Amadeus isn't very good, stuff like that isn't exactly my strong point.

Finally, thanks to Razor da Hedgehog who has already put this story on alert and favourites (although their wasn't a review, that kinda speaks for itself :P). ^_^

One final word: read, review an enjoy!

EDIT: I found a freaking typo DX I feel so stupid... I'm not normally one to incorrectly spell words. What made me feel even more stupid is a few grammar errors which I've corrected.

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Chapter 2: The Conference

Sonic had now become entranced at the title. Luckily, he managed to snap out of it. 'It's his father... In the news...' was all he managed to say to the confused crowd. Knuckles walked over and took the newspaper out of the fox's hands. Surprisingly, Tails didn't so much as try to resist. Infact he stayed in the same position as before. Knuckles, after a brief look of added confusion to Tails' lack of response, read out loud:

'Professor Amadeus Prower at the University of Engineering and Mechanics has announced that he has created the world's smartest robot. 'With the most advanced Artificial Intelligence ever seen on Mobius, this robot will be able to function like a living being. Turn to page -' Knuckles finished off quickly as he realised he needed to turn to a different page to read the whole thing. Quickly flicking through and skim reading, he found where he left off and carried on. '- It will be mass produced as a robot to help around people's homes, helping the police, paramedics and firefighters and businesses around the world.' A public Conference meeting will be held tomorrow at 2pm at the University to reveal the first prototype. However, concerns have risen that the conference may be attacked by Doctor Eggman in an attempt to obtain the super intelligent robot. Due to these concerns, the police have enforced maximum security on the meeting.'

It took a while before anything happened. Unkown to everyone, Tails had received such a great shock that his heart could no longer take it and he simply fainted.

Tails's eyes opened with a jolt. He found himself lying in bed. _Whoa... what happened?_ He sat up and looked around to see if anyone was there. Since no one was, Tails slid out of his bed and walked towards the door and downstairs. He found everyone seated in the living room casually talking. Sonic was the first to notice Tails. 'Hey there bro! What happened?' Sonic said as everyone else noticed and turned round to see the still slightly dazed kit. 'I really don't know... The last thing I remember was seeing the headline of the newspaper and next thing I know, I'm in my bed.' Tails explained to the still slightly confused crowd as he sat down. 'Well, so long as you didn't stay out too long to miss out on what I've cooked for ya,' Amy spoke out unexpectedly. Everyone chuckled at this before realising how hungry they actually were. Sonic wasn't very good at serving large meals, only breakfast, lunch and dinner and Tails had forgotten about his birthday and forgot to set up a party. They put on their scarves, hats and coats (no gloves needed as they wear them all the time anyway) and set off for Amy's house. Sonic explained to Tails what the article had said and, before Tails could ask, said that he could go to the conference – he knew that Tails would want to see him. Tails hadn't seen his father since he was 2, which he was too young to remember. Captured by Eggman during his days of 'robotisizing' people, turning them into cyborgs, Tails hadn't seen him or his mother, Rosemary, ever since and had been brought up by Sonic after being rescued. Tails hoped that one day he would be able to find out the location of his parents, but never once found out. Every time he searched the databanks of Eggman's computers, not so much as a single piece of data came up. It was like they had been erased from existence.

They reached Amy's house in about 5 minutes. Tails smelled the pre-cooked food before anyone else due to his acute sense of smell. He had no intentions of telling anyone how nice it smelled incase it arroused an argument or something, but it made his hunger pains tighten suddenly and he almost started drooling. Eventually, the sweet smell of pies reached everyone else's noses and they too felt like drooling. A minute later when they were sat around the dining table, three pies were served: Blackberry, cherry and Tails' favourite, apple. Everyone received their slice of pie and began eating and talking. Sonic explained to the ecstatic fox that he would need to get an early night's rest if he wanted to see his father; Vanilla was giving some handy cooking tips to Amy; Cream was feeding Cheese, and Knuckles was just eating seeing that he had nothing interesting to talk about. Everyone finished their pie, and Amy went in the kitchen for dessert. As she came in, she switched off the lights. Immediately, Tails knew what was coming, as did everyone else. 9 hovering lights appeared at the kitchen's door, while everyone broke into another chorus of 'happy birthday to you!'. 'Make a wish, Tails!' Sonic said after the singing had stopped. Tails thought of a wish before blowing out the candles. Everyone cheered as Sonic then turned the lights on and revealed that the cake resembled a large mint candy, Tails' favourite food. He also took a guess at the flavour of it, which he found that he was right when he received his slice and began to eat. Now that everyone was filled, they headed off home, wishing Tails one final happy birthday as they departed, before leaving with Sonic back home.

When they reached home, they lay their now wet jackets from the melted snow on a radiator to dry. Sonic and Tails then went upstairs into their rooms and fell asleep.

Miraculously, Tails managed to get a good night's sleep despite his excitement. However, when he went to sit up he felt something move on his left hand. He looked around to find a bowl of warm water. He didn't even want to check if Sonic's cruel prank had caused him to have an accident or not. _Sonic, you know how important today is for me! Why'd you do this now?!_ Angry, Tails thought of how he was going to confront Sonic. Instead of doing that, a plan quickly came together in his mind. _Heh. Sonic, you're not the only one who can do cruel jokes._ Tails climbed out of bed, still not daring to look at the sheets, and put the bowl of water under his bed for later. He then took out the spare sheet from his drawers that he used for when the other sheet needed washing and switched the sheets. Acting as casual as possible without over doing it, Tails went downstairs for breakfast. Finding Sonic already up, they exchanged a 'morning' to each other and Tails went for a bowl of cereal. Sonic however, knew something was wrong. _Didn't he notice the bowl? Or was I dreaming..._ It was late at night when Sonic had pulled the prank, so this question began to linger in his mind before Tails snapped him out of it. 'Hey Sonic, when are we leaving for the conference?' The confused hedgehog, although not showing it, answered 'we'll head off at about half one so we can get there early and get some good seats.' Tails nodded and carried on with his breakfast. Sonic shrugged the matter of the 'missing' bowl off as actually being a dream. But just to make sure, he went upstairs after finishing his breakfast to double check Tails' sheets, wondering if the kit was just hiding the fact of his 'accident'. Sure enough, the sheets were clean and a bowl nowhere in sight, leaving Sonic in a state of total confusion. Passing it off as a 'I'll do it next week' thing, he went downstairs to see what Tails was up to. Not very surprisingly, the door to the workshop was open. Sonic went down to see what the fox was up to. What was also not surprising was that Tails was on the drawing board again, eager to get the blueprints finished. Sonic left him to it, seeing as they had a couple of hours spare time, and went outside for a jog.

* * *

It was just about two o'clock When the duo arrived at the University. Sure enough, a large crowd had formed inside infront of a stand. Sonic and Tails wiped their feet of snow before setting off to find a decent spot. Tails' heart hammered so much it was almost visible. Sonic made sure to stay behind Tails incase he dropped again from the excitement. On the stand, a single robot stood there, currently turned off. It had a basic bipedal structure with arms, legs, body and head. It was a shiny grey colour because of the metal.

A clock struck two, as someone from behind the stand came on. The figure Tails immediately recognised, since he was a striking equivalent to him, only taller and wearing a labcoat. His left eye was robotic. It was grey (as you'd expect from metal) with a series of lines crossing it, and a red sphere in the middle, evidently meant to help him see. He was nearly twice the size of Tails. He had the three bangs hanging from his forehead, although thicker and longer. His shoes were the usual colour scheme of red and white. A white strip ran down the centre with three small bumps. What was most notable was that he had two tails. Tails was in awe of his father's appearance, while Sonic was cautiously holding his hands behind Tails' back incase he decided to overload again. Luckily that didn't happen.

Half an hour passed and Amadeus had explained the functions of the robot. He had called it Arnold as he couldn't think of a technical name for it. It was so advanced it could feel basic emotions, but was unaffected by emotional breakdowns and sadness and anger. It was able to understand advanced commands instantly. At one point, it even entertained some children that had managed to squeeze their way to the front while the professor answered questions. Its voice wasn't robotic or monotonic, but sounded like a human's. Tails sucked in all of the information given without a single second of complaining of any flaws or improvements he could make. Sonic too was intrigued by the robot's flawless design, even if most of it sounded like another of Tails' rambles about something he couldn't understand more about if he tried. The conference ended with different representatives of newspapers taking some final pictures of the robot while it's creator collected his equipment. Tails thought this as his only chance. Now or never. Since he didn't want the reunion seen by everyone else, Tails followed his father to his office.

Amadeus closed the door of his office before putting his things back._ Arnold will be returning to the testing lab after the final photos._ He then sat at his desk, spinned round to face the windows that overlooked most of the University and relaxed. A knock on the door made him look round in curiosity. _The media have already asked me all of the questions, and I specifically told Arnold to go to the lab, what do they want now?_ 'Come in' Amadeus called in a half commanding, half welcoming voice as he spun round to face the door and leant forward. The door opened and Tails' head came round the corner. It was as if time had slowed for both of the foxes as soon as they laid eyes on each other. Amadeus and Tails stood staring at each other, Sonic still behind Tails incase he collapsed. 'Miles...?' was the first word that was spoken in this moment of suspended animation. 'Dad...?' Tails said in the same tone of voice. Immediately, Tails' eyes started to water has he ran towards his long lost father. At the same time, Amadeus came off from his chair and infront of his desk. He then bent low and embraced Tails in what could have been a bone-crushing hug. They cried into each other's shoulders in joy for a whole minute, while Sonic looked at the reunited father and son with a smile of joy of his own. Finally, a sound was made other than sobbing. 'I missed you dad...' Tails muttered in his father's ear. 'Missed you too son...' After this, they seperated. Amadeus then offered to talk with them in a small sitting area. They sat down and began to discuss. The first question on Tails' mind was the first to be asked. 'Why didn't you come looking for me? And why didn't you leave any clues for me to find you?'.

'Miles, what you've got to understand is that me and your mother had no idea you were alive. We thought you had been captured by Eggman too and seperated from us. We thought we'd never see you again when we escaped, and we tried to erase every shred of evidence of our existence from Eggman so he had no clues on relocating us. Although, with the recent media coverage of Arnold, I suppose that my cover is finally over.' Amadeus sighed at this. 'And I take it Sonic here was the one who saved you?' Amadeus questioned the two of them. Sonic nodded briefly and Amadeus thanked him for saving and looking after his son for all these years.  
'So what was it that Eggman put you through? Before you escaped, that is,' Tails asked, eager to know what Eggman used to be up to. Amadeus explained to him how he was to moderate several pieces of advanced equipment, and how he was treated if he refused. How the robotisizing felt when it was finally given to him, and how he and Rosemary, his wife, managed to break the stranglehold and escape. He explained how excrutiatingly painful the punishments and the robotisizing were, and how often he was given them. These descriptions seemed to have hit something in Tails' mind that forced anger to build up in him. He also remembered on how, with Eggman's help, the Metarex had nearly won a battle that had forced him to lose a much beloved friend. These two pains mixed together to form anger that not even the pure-hearted fox would be able to control. Hoping to rid this pain and change the subject, Tails asked 'So where's mom?'.  
'She's at home, cooking dinner for when I get back. Infact... Sonic, Miles, would you like to have dinner with us tonight?' Amadeus asked them both, hoping to spend the evening with his mini-me and his older brother. 'Yes please! And, call me Tails dad,' Tails exclaimed, almost leaping out of his seat at the idea and immediately bringing him out of the temporarily stored anger. Amadeus chuckled, then reached over for his phone to call his wife and after a short conversation of leaving his wife on a cliffhanger on the mystery guests, he hung up. Tails was so full of excitement that he finally passed out from his rapidly beating heart that lost its will to carry on the way it was.

As soon as he hit the floor he was awake again. He found his brother's feet infront of his own eyes, and felt a pair of arms pick him up from behind and helping him onto the seat. 'Tails? Are you ok?' Amadeus said with complete confusion and concern for the fox's sudden passing out. Tails took a moment to respond as his head started spinning from the impact. 'Yeah... I think...' Amadeus took his word for it, but was still concerned about his health. At that moment however, an extremely loud, ear splitting ringing sound filled the room. All three of its occupants tried to block it out by holding their ears. Because of this, they didn't hear the shattering of the glass at the back of the office, or the hovering machine that had caused the ringing appear at the now non existent windows. The robot, the source of the interruption, had two loud speakers mounted above two larger cannons armed and ready to fire, and a large glass container to the rear. The ringing stopped to be replaced by an annoying laugh that Sonic and Tails recognised immediately. 'Eggman!' they both exclaimed at the same time, looking up at the robot. Amadeus too turned round to face the uninvited guest as Eggman floated down in his Eggpod next to his latest creation.

'Ahh, Sonic, what a pleasant surprise! Looks like I'm going to be collecting more than I bargained for!' Eggman exclaimed to the trio now with faces of determination and ready to fight. 'And you, professor, have evaded me long enough! Hand yourself over, or I'll take you by force!' Before Amadeus could fight back, Sonic and Tails stepped in the way. 'You'll have to get through us first Eggman!' Sonic responded. Eggman wasn't concentrating on him though. He was looking at Tails with a look of almost terror. Tails wasn't just showing a face of determination – it was one of pure hatred. Eggman quickly brought himself together and said 'I'm pretty sure I can sort out the little fox pretty easily.' Pressing a button, the machine played a sound that was strikingly like a thunder clap, matching one to the very decible. Tails instinctively set a foot back and blocked his ears, but wouldn't break eye contact with Eggman, or drop to his knees, no matter how scared the sound made him. Sonic then went into a spin dash straight towards the speakers. What he failed to notice was that the cannons mounted below them were precharged. The cannons took aim and fired. Although neither hit, Sonic did manage to tap one, scarring his side and falling to the ground with a grunt. He clutched his right arm with his left as the stinging pain lingered. He tried to forget about it, but the stinging was so painful it was hard to forget about. 'E-72, attack strategy H-F!' Eggman blurted out at the robot. The robot instantly responded, and 5 smaller sentry turrets clipped out from the sides and primed on Sonic. One of the main blasters turned its attention Tails. The sentry turrets open fired at a very fast rate on Sonic, while the cannons began to charge up. Sonic continuously dodged the oncoming attacks.

'Not even you can keep this up for ever Son-!' Eggman was rudely interrupted by a devastating blow in the side of his face. Eggman grunted before looking round for the source. _Both Sonic and Tails are still pinned down – Sonic from the continuous fire and Tails keeping an eye on the charged cannon. So that can only mean –_ his thoughts were interrupted by a second bone crushing uppercut to the chin. Amadeus, like his son, was filled to the rim with anger. Standing on the side of the Eggpod, he kicked at the controls, hoping for something to happen. The side effects of this attack took place immediately – the E-72 stopped firing and instead began to rotate on the spot at an alarming rate. Sonic took this chance and went for another spin dash at the blur that was the robot. Blasting straight through, he came round like a boomerang and smashed the back of the Eggpod. This caused its anti-gravity engine to stop operating and began to fall. Sonic quickly rugby tackled Amadeus and landed back in the office, while Eggman plummeted three stories. Luckily, the back up generator activated in time. Even luckier, he looked up to shout at Sonic and found the E-72 about to fall on top of him. Swerving out of the way, the machine came crashing down on the spot he was on just half a second ago. Flying away as fast as he could, he shouted the usual 'I'll get you next time you infernal hedgehog!' before heading off to disappear on the horizon. 'He'll be back...' was Amadeus' first words. Sonic and Tails silently agreed, knowing that if Eggman wanted to capture someone, he would be determined to make sure they are.

* * *

Would have carried on after this point, but instead I'll leave you on a cliffhanger ^_^

If you're wondering what mini-me is, then you clearly haven't watched Austin Powers. It's basically someone that is the exact double of you, but smaller. Mini-me in Austin Powers is the same as the nemesis in it, but only 1/8 his size.


	3. A fatal accident

Disclaimer: God I get bored of writing this pretty fast. I don't own Sonic or related characters, yadayada, all ownership to Sega and Sonic Team. Amadeus and Rosemary are copyright Archie comics I think. If I'm wrong, correct me please. Story however is mine :) and any made up characters in the story (e.g. Artemis).

We left our heroes off at a short lived battle with Eggman. If you're wondering what this has to do with a 'hidden ability' you'll find out soon enough :)

Also there might be a slight misunderstanding with the driving at the start. Remember Americans, I'm British, I'm used to the driver being on the right side :P And I don't mean to be offensive. Don't hurt me :( Some of the words I have written in the American version. For instance, mom, so it sounds more like Tails. Mum sounds nowhere near :P

Lastly, thank you to tailsisreal for my first review!

Anyway. Read, review and/or enjoy ^_^

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Chapter 3: A fatal accident

Sonic was jogging along side a car, heading out the outer suburbs of the city. Lucky for him, the snow had been ploughed out of the way. The car was driven by Amadeus, who had had a look of anxiety the whole way. No one had noticed however as one was outside the car and the other was asleep. He took a quick glance to his left at the snoozing Tails before turning into a driveway and into a garage. Sonic looked up at the house and let out a small whistle. It was the average two storey house, but it had a large balcony supported by two large pillars. The balcony itself was hard to see since it was covered in snow. Amadeus got out as Tails jolted awake at the sound of the door closing. Unbuckling from the seatbelt, he opened the door and slid out and closed the door behind him.

As they walked inside the house, all three were hit by a delicious aroma coming from the kitchen to the left. It was the unmistakable smell of freshly cooked chilli dogs. 'Mmmm... that smells good...' Sonic spoke out. Tails nodded in agreement while Amadeus had gone to the kitchen to talk to his wife while Sonic and Tails hung up their jackets and went into the living room. The two of them had yet another shock of their lives. This time, due to something he wasn't told about. Sitting on the floor, watching a children's show, was a baby two-tailed fox, and he too was a spitting image of Tails. If he was stood up, he would only come up to Tails' knee. He seemed to be unaware of the new guests, as he still watched the children's show that had a dancing purple monster, similar to the one Cream and Cheese danced to back on Earth. Instead of dancing however, the toddler just sat there patiently watching. Sonic and Tails quietly sat down.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Amadeus and Rosemary were talking.  
'Now you may have a bit of a shock when you see these two Rose,' Amadeus exclaimed to his wife. She had long fur on top of her head that came down behind her to her neck, and only had one tail. She wore a long blue dress and her eyes were an emerald green, which could match Sonic's. Unlike her husband, she hadn't been put through the robotisizing process, resulting in her body still being whole. 'Oh, stop teasing me and tell me who it is already!' Rosemary exclaimed with a cheery smile as she picked up the dinner plates to carry in to the living room. Amadeus offered to take them, fearing she would drop them when she saw Tails.

As expected, when she walked into the living room, she gave out a large yelp at the sight of Tails. Falling backwards onto the wall, she clutched her chest with a horrified expression. Tails leapt to his feet and ran over to stop his mother from falling, whilst the baby had turned round to see what the commotion was about. She quickly gained her breath back, and after a minute, finally remembered why she had been scared and, after a few moments of registering who it was, took Tails into another nearly bone-crushing hug and cried into his shoulder with joy. Tails returned the hug and after a few seconds of hugging, they let go of each other and Rosemary took a second to look at him. 'You look just like your father Miles.' 'Please mom, call me Tails,' Tails replied with a smile which was returned by Rosemary.

'Tails!' the baby on the floor blurted it with a smile. He had now turned round fully and had started clapping his hands and continuously saying 'Tails! Tails!' while looking thoroughly pleased with himself. Everyone else chuckled and Amadeus said 'I think little Artemis here knows you're his big brother already Tails!' Amadeus excalimed which brought out a fresh dose of laughter from everyone. Artemis had stopped saying Tails' name as he spotted Sonic. He then blurted out 'Sonic! Sonic!' and caused even more laughter. When the laughter died down, Rosemary said 'he seems to be a bit of a fan.' Sonic nodded in agreement as Amadeus handed round the plates and Rosemary put Artemis in a baby chair with a table on it.

After a few minutes eating, Tails asked 'so how old is Artemis?'  
'Four. Five in a couple of months,' Was Amadeus' response. 'And you should be about eight then, am I right?' he added after swallowing a mouthful of chilli dog.  
'Nine. It was my birthday yesterday.'  
'Then happy birthday to you Tails. Sorry we couldn't give you anything but...' Amadeus said with a rather guilty look on his face.  
'Really, dad, it's ok. You couldn't have known, and besides, seeing you and mom again is the best present I could ever want.' Amadeus' spirit lifted at this and smiled at Tails, who smiled back.  
'I really like your cooking Mrs. Prower. Never had chilli dogs so tasty in my life,' Sonic complemented Rosemary who smiled and thanked Sonic. Just then, a chip landed in Sonic's ear which caused him to jump. He looked round for the source, which he soon spotted as an over excited Artemis.  
'Arty! Stop being rude and eat your dinner properly!' Rosemary said to Artemis who gave a look of sadness and said  
'Sorry mommy. Sorry Sonic.' _I would be more surprised of his communication skills if I didn't think that my father's intelligence had passed on to him too_ Tails thought to himself as Sonic pulled the chip out of his ear with a small chuckle and said to Rosemary not to worry about it.

Amadeus and Tails were soon in deep conversation about many different engineering and mechanical things that made no sense to anyone else in the room. Tails was explaining his X-Tornado and the Blue Typhoon, the spaceship he had created that had allowed him and everyone else to travel around the universe to stop the Metarex. Amadeus was amazed that one small person could build such a large machine without anyone else's help. Design it yes, but even with the correct technology, it could take a large team months to build it, and it had only taken Tails one month. Amadeus then went on to explaining some of his own inventions.

It reached nine in the afternoon when Sonic and Tails finally departed. Tails' family waved them goodbye, including Artemis, before they set off towards Angel Falls. Tails propelled himself along while Sonic jogged along next to him.

After going through three streets and on the outskirts of town, Tails was thinking of the recent events. Because of this lapse in concentration however, he failed to see an oncoming car as they turned a corner that led out of the city. Since Sonic was not accustomed to Tails losing his concentration, he didn't manage to save the kit in time. The car skidded to one side to try to swerve Tails, but it was too late. With a sudden look of surprise on his face, his legs smashed into the front of the car. Causing him to somersault, he then smashed his head off of the windscreen, knocking him out instantly.

* * *

Relatively short, I know. I was going to carry on, but instead, I've moved what I had typed on to the next chapter.

P.S. I didn't derive the Artemis name from the Artemis Fowl series. I was cycling through the mass number of names I know of to find one that was most fitting and chose Artemis. It wasn't until at the end of the chapter that I finally made the connection. Would of made it sooner if I hadn't been writing :P


	4. Premonition

* * *

I even left myself in suspense on that last chapter O.O

Here it is! Sorry I left you hanging like that, but recent advice told me to split it into two seperate chapters, instead of one big one.

Disclaimer: Grr I hate copyright laws these days. Too strict. I don't own Sonic or related characters, they are copyright Sega and Sonic Team. Amadeus and Rosemary Prower are copyright Archie Comics. Now for the bit I like. This story is mine, as well as any OC characters (e.g. Artemis Prower). Stupid world being too politically correct...

And if you don't know what an intravenous line is, it's a little plastic thing with a flexible rod that is injected into your hand so doctors can inject medical drugs into you, or attatch a drip to it. First hand experience: it hurts! And the anaesthetic feels really weird too (as described later). I didn't like writing that scene. It made the nerve memory (what I call remembering pain etc.) come back and I really didn't like it. :'(

Thanks to Razor da hedgehog for the shortest review I've ever seen: 'O.O OH NO!' I think it's safe to say the cliff hanger surprised ya XD and thanks to tailsisreal for your review and handy tips too ^_^

Anyway, here it is, chapter 4! A lot longer than chapter 3 (since chapter 3 was just over 1,000 words it should be O.O). Read, review, enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 4: Premonition

Tails woke to find himself in a bed. His head was spinning so much, Tails didn't even bother to try to sit up. His vision cleared as he looked around and found he was in the hospital.

_How'd I get here?_ The bewildered fox thought to himself. _Oww!_ Was his next thought as the pain on his head struck him. He clutched his head just to find it hurt even more and let go. A pain equally as powerful suddenly reached his left leg. The pain became quickly unbearable for the fox. It was like having your head and leg crushed in an impounder, but not actually being crushed, and being unable to move at all with no one to help you, and Tails almost felt like he was going to cry. It wouldn't stop, it wouldn't ease and there was no way that you could possibly forget such a pain so powerful as what Tails was going through now. He bit down on his teeth as hard as he could to try to help relieve the pain. The pain was so extreme, he would have much preferred to have rammed into a building in the X-Tornado at full speed. Atleast then, he wouldn't be alive to feel the pain. He bit down on the sheets. Still, the pain percervered. Tails rolled over onto his face and buried his head in the pillow as hard as he could. Nothing. He wrapped one tail around his leg, and his other around his head hoping it would do something. Instead of relieving pain, it increased it to an almost suicidal level. He began to cry into his pillow, hoping upon hope someone would save him from this living nightmare. He hoped it wasn't real, but the pain was so excrutiating, it couldn't be possible to imagine it, even in the worst of all nightmares. Tears streamed down his face, the pain was only increasing, never stopping, not leaving any sign of departing. _I'm going to die..._ Tails thought to himself. _I'm going to die from this, and no one can save me..._ He screamed at the top of his lungs, hoping someone would hear.

Just then, an alert female squirrel doctor bursted in which, by pure coincidence, was about to inject a routine painkiller into Tails through an intravenous line injected into his right hand. She had been caught off guard by the sudden screaming and had rushed in. Tail mumbled 'the pain... make it stop... please...' as tears continued to stream down the fox's face and into the pillow. The doctor relaxed, now knowing what the wailing was for and calmly walked over to inject the milky white serum into the line. Almost instantly, Tails could feel the serum going through his veins. It wasn't just generally travelling down his arm though – he could literally feel it travelling through every single vein in his arm. It felt stabbingly cold, and it came from the inside, making it feel even more horrible. He didn't know what upset him more – the pain or the painkiller. He felt like he was being torn apart, like someone was horribly torturing him from the inside in ways that couldn't be imagined.

Then, as quickly as it had started, it stopped. The pain eased away quickly, as did the horrible feeling in his arm. He still breathed heavily, but atleast the pain was gone. _If I ever have to go through that again...  
_'Are you ok?' the doctor asked Tails, who's head was still spinning. After catching his breath, and a few minutes from recovering from the trauma, he muttered 'Urrr... I think so...' His head was spinning so wildly, it made him feel sick. He couldn't gain any sense of control over his head, unable to tell where was up and where was down. Eventually, the spinning began to ease, allowing him to look in a straight line for more than a few minutes.

Some ten minutes later, Sonic came in with some food. 'See you're finally up bro!' Sonic exclaimed with glee.  
'Yeah... but... why am I here again?' Tails said with a still dazed expression on his face.  
'Don't you remember? You got hit by a car!' Tails gave a confused expression, trying to think of what he might have forgotten. After a few seconds thought, he shook his head.  
'I think he's had a concussion, causing some memory loss,' the doctor concluded after checking Tails' vitals and leaving the room with a slightly satisfied expression. _Wow... finally finding your parents then losing your memory of it minutes later. He'll be devastated_ Sonic thought to himself. He looked down at his little brother, thinking of how he'll react. He was about to ask Tails if he remembered it, but Tails said something that confirmed his fears.  
'Aww man! I'm gonna be in here for my birthday!' Tails scrunched his face up in disappointment to find it hurt his head and stopped.  
'You've forgot your birthday aswell then. It was two days ago.' Tails tried to sit up at Sonic's statement, but found it would be too painful to do so, even though the painkiller should have restrained it, and Tails fell back down into his pillows. Sonic approached his brother and sat down beside him.

Sonic began to explain the recent events in as much detail as he possibly could, hoping it would bring back some memories. Sadly though, no matter how much Tails looked delighted, no such memories returned to the dishevelled fox. _Hopefully, something will return... I really want to remember my parents... and the little brother I have now..._ Tails thought to himself as he listened intently to Sonic's explanation.

Sonic then gave Tails a description of the accident. He said that Tails was saved by the fact his legs were in mid air because of spinning his tails. Had he been on the ground, the impact would have killed him instantly. He said that his left leg was the only one hit because of the angle the car had turned at, leaving his right leg relatively unharmed. Sonic finally finished, leaving Tails with a mixed emotion of excitement and fear. Tails sunk into his pillows and thought about what he had been told. A few flashes had returned to him; the fighting moves Knuckles had taught him and the headline and the dinner with his father, mother and brother. Failing to remember anything else he looked round to Sonic who had now started on his lunch with a typical chilli dog. The aroma reminded him of his breakfast yesterday, which also triggered the recall of the cruel prank that he would soon repay, given the chance.

* * *

The hospital had shunted a very objective Sonic out of the hospital for the night, followed by an equally objective Tails' complaints. Eventually giving up, Tails sunk into his pillows and started to think of what he had managed to remember. This wasn't very helpful as it seemed that thinking hurts a lot more now, due to his concussion. Instinctively, he reached for his head and felt the bandages on them. He hadn't realised they were on there before, even if it was obvious that they would be. He assumed that his legs were in the same way, but he barely had enough energy to sit up, let alone take the sheets off of him. Even arguing with the nurses had drained most of what he had left. He quickly fell asleep, hoping it could probably jog his memory in some way.

Tails had a dream where he was in his X-Tornado, flying aimlessly and without a care in the world of where he would end up. It was night time. Soaring just above the clouds, the view above him was stunning. Countless stars could be seen. So many, they actually made making out corellations a difficult task. Tails just kicked back and relaxed, allowing the auto pilot to take control of the uncharted flight route. He stared at the stars, thinking of their beauty, and yet, also of the forces that lay out there, that contrasted the magnificence of them.

As if something had read his mind, a small, but bright star suddenly appeared from nowhere. At first, Tails thought nothing of it. However, when it began to grow steadily larger, he began to notice it. _That's odd. If a meteor entered the atmosphere, it would be falling at a supersonic speed, not slow and steady._ Tails sat up and took a pair of binoculars from a holster. He had second thoughts because he remembered what would happen if you looked at the sun in the same way, and feared the same might happen with looking at a falling object and stowed the binoculars back.

The orb suddenly sped up its pace, hurtling towards Tails at an alarming rate. Suddenly alarmed and alert, Tails immediately took control of the X-Tornado and steered it away from the falling object's path. Tails then spun round and into a dive below the clouds and towards ground to see what it was when it landed. Following its fall, he noticed that it left some sort of purple gas-like substance in its wake. A dull thud told Tails that it had struck the ground. A blinding flash of light came from the impact zone. It expanded to fill the whole area, blinding Tails with its magnificence, and everything disappeared, to be replaced by the real world.

Tails woke to find himself panting and sweating. The pain had subsided overnight, so Tails was able to sit up properly, even though he still felt a little light headed. He relayed what he had just seen. _It seemed so real_ Tails thought to himself. _What was it?_ He relayed the object that had shot by him, and the trail it left behind. _Purple smoke... _The only reason this dream had bothered him so much was because of its somewhat realism. He soon let the matter go, and turned his attention to the window. The sun was just rising up over the horizon. The sky was clear of clouds, and the snow had long since melted away, leaving a landscape of clear buildings. Tails sunk back into his pillows. Upon doing so, he found how hungry he was and wondered when a doctor would come along to give him his breakfast. He then remembered how bad the food was, and hoped someone would save him from despair.

* * *

'Ho ho ho hooo!'

Decoe and Bocoe let out a sigh as their creator had come up with his latest invention. The two robots doubted that this creation wouldn't do much damage however. It was simply a dragonfly shaped robot with a camera and an engine that could drive it to high speeds in seconds.

'Doctor, you really haven't put much thought into this idea,' Bocoe exclaimed. Eggman rounded on him.  
'Aah, but with this robot and my chaos emerald, I'll be able to follow Sonic's every move. Then, using the data it collects, I can create the perfect robot!' Eggman rambled before turning back to the console.  
'Why doesn't he just give it a bomb or something to blow Sonic up while he's running?' Decoe whispered to Bocoe. Indeed, this would be the logical solution. However, despite Eggman's high IQ of three hundred, he always seems to come up with slow robots that have weapons that hardly ever hit Sonic and almost always have their weak point sticking out like a sore thumb. The only robot that had ever come close to defeating Sonic went out of control and required all seven chaos emeralds to nearly obliterate the hedgehog in the first place.

'Or better yet, not create it at all and just build a robot that blows up when Sonic gets near it,' Bocoe whispered back.  
'Or just send Bokkun with a bomb' Decoe concluded. They both knew it would never happen as Eggman was the type of person who played with his food rather than have it gone quickly and without problems. Eggman was unaware of their discussion of logical solutions and instead carried on with the current robot. The two robots decided not to tell Eggman just so they could watch him fail yet again at another plot.

* * *

Tails took a big bite from the chilli dog Sonic had just given him.

'Thanks for saving me from that, Sonic' Tails said as he nodded to a small cardboard box with the worst breakfast either of them had ever seen. Sonic would of responded if his mouth wasn't full. Instead, he just nodded to show his appreciation. The two of them ate away at their breakfasts. Tails thought it uneccessary to explain his dream, passing it off as a nightmare and didn't want Sonic to over react or get troubled by it. He soon forgot about it himself and turned his attention to his general health, which the doctor was currently diagnosing.

'It seems that you're recovering quite quickly. You should be able to leave the hospital later today at this rate, but you'll be confined to crutches because of your leg. And we will have to leave the concussion to repair itself,' the doctor explained.

'That's great news!' Tails said with a large smile, happy that he would be able leave so soon. Sonic was equally happy, but was halfway through another chilli dog so couldn't express himself any further than an equally large smile. The doctor exited the room just before three more visitors came in. It was Tails' family.

Tails waved to them then realised something. 'How'd you know I was here?' Tails asked. By this time, he had remembered almost all of the events, with the exception of the conference where Amadeus had explained Arnold and the accident.

'Sonic dropped us a note last night saying about the accident,' Amadeus said as Rosemary ran over and gave Tails a hug. He painfully regretted this as it made his head hurt.  
'Mom! Please! My head hurts!' Tails managed to say before Rosemary let go and said an apology. Amadeus set Artemis down on the side of the bed before pulling up a chair for him and Rosemary. Because Tails couldn't remember the accident, he let Sonic explain it to them instead. Meanwhile, Artemis had crawled over to Tails and sat next to him. He then mimicked Tails by resting his head in the upraised pillows in a similar fashion. Tails shifted around, unaware that his little brother copied the shifting precisley. No one noticed because they were all listening to Sonic's explanation. Tails reached round to scratch an itchy part on the back of his head. Again, Artemis was quick to copy his actions and scratched the back of his head. Tails noticed it this time and looked at his little brother, who looked at him back with blue eyes that were incredibly like Tails'. Everyone in the room was also quick to spot this, and therefore Sonic had stopped his speech. Tails raised his other hand. Sure enough, Artemis copied him. Tails then brought out one of his tails from under the covers and brought it round over his head. Again, the toddler matched the movement. Tails then moved his left ear so that it pointed downwards, followed by Artemis doing the same thing. Tails then looked at his parents, hoping they'd give an explanation of this strange behaviour. Amadeus chuckled but shrugged his shoulders.  
'Perhaps he's following his brother's footsteps already. A little too literally, I might add.' Everyone chuckled at this except Artemis, who clearly couldn't see what was funny. Tails looked back down at his little brother, and the sudden thought of the copy-cat robot Emerl came into his head. He remembered the technique that was used to defeat the robot, which was doing two seperate attacks at the same time so it couldn't read them. Tails tried this theory by turning his head round to face his brother completely, pointing both tails infront of him and holding his arms up at the same time. Again, Artemis reflected his movements. Tails then smiled and gave the now laughing fox cub a hug and sat him on his lap. Everyone started talking again with Artemis occasionally blurting out words that he caught from the conversation.

Unkown to the group, Eggman's new robot hovered outside of the window. It was much smaller than the plans suggested, and could no way be able to hold a chaos emerald without being seen. Eggman had told Bocoe and Decoe that he was working on it when they pointed out the design flaw.  
'Hmm...' was Eggman's first sound as he watched the young fox repeating the moves exactly. 'If I can harness his mind, maybe I can harness his abilities...' Eggman thought out loud. Bocoe and Decoe understood what he was thinking and felt obliged to protest.  
'Doctor, you can't possibly think of kidnapping a child!' Bocoe shouted with concern.  
'That's just going too far!' Decoe said immediately after with a look of absolute outrage.  
'Quiet! I'll do things the way I want them done or I'm dismantling the both of you!' Eggman blasted out at the protesting robots who reluctantly backed down at the threat. 'Besides, all I'm going to do is collect his brainwaves while copying things and create a newer version of that old robot.' Eggman turned his attention back to the display screen. It showed that now they were all talking and had nothing else to do. Still, the robot hung around for a little while longer incase something did happen before returning. Eggman let out a short chuckle before pressing a button.

In a hangar in Eggman's base, a large lift brought up a new robot. It was a modified E-72 that would be remote controlled from the base. It also had two interchangeable cartidges for the main cannons, so while one charges up, the other can fire. The E-72 accelerated out of the hangar and towards the city. Bocoe and Decoe wanted to object further, but the thought of being scrapped apart restrained them just enough.

* * *

It reached two o'clock and Tails was finally able to leave the hospital, although he had been confined to crutches until his leg was fully healed. The small group left the hospital together to the car, since Amadeus had offered to take Tails back to his home at Angel Falls. With Sonic running along side, they drove off to the outer suburbs of the city and towards the mountain.

Half an hour later, back at the hospital, the E-72 arrived at the window of Tails' previous room. Eggman watched through the camera he had built into it to find the room vacant. He grumbled as he quickly realised that Tails must have left the hospital by the time E-72 had arrived. _What a waste, now I'll have to track them down_ Eggman thought to himself. He didn't know the location of Sonic's and Tails' house, and since he had lost track of them after calling back the dragonfly-type robot (which he named the Egg-Spy) he decided to give up and call the E-72 back for a later purpose. He no longer had any intentions of kidnapping Amadeus, and instead focused on how he would capture his youngest son.

* * *

Tails was having his ear pulled by a now mischevious Artemis in the car. It made his head hurt a little, but he didn't mind because it wasn't doing any real damage. They stopped off infront of the house and Tails climbed out with a bit of difficulty, tyring to get his crutches out. Sonic came over to help him out, and he was soon climbing the stairs to his house.

The day passed on smoothly. Tails had a few hitches getting around the house, and Sonic had forbidden him from going to the workshop for his own safety. Tails' family stayed for dinner before heading off home. It reached eleven o'clock and Sonic helped a struggling Tails upstairs to his room before setting off for his own and falling asleep. Tails, however, had no intentions of sleeping.

He kept his mind occupied with a few logical games for about an hour before grabbing one of his crutches and the warm bowl of water that was still hidden under his bed. Carefully opening his door so as to not make a sound, he turned left and crossed the short hallway in a few paces and reaching the front of Sonic's bedroom. Looking through the keyhole to check the hedgehog was sleeping, he carefully pried the door open. Now for the tricky part. Moving very slowly towards the bed took the crippled fox a few minutes. _How can Sonic do this so easily?_ Tails thought to himself. _Well, he isn't confined to crutches when he does it for a start._ Even with this in mind, Tails was determined to repay the sometimes immature hedgehog. Reaching the side of his bed, he placed the bowl carefully on the bedside table. He carefully took Sonic's hand in his own and placed it in the bowl. _Success!_ Tails congratulated himself before turning round to exit the room.

While this scheme was being pulled, a dark comet hurtled towards Angel Falls. Knuckles stood on top of one of the pillars surrounding the Master Emerald to watch it. Despite it's bright light from coming into the amosphere and coming towards the mountain, it left no visible trail behind it. Knuckles didn't think much of it except from _So long as it doesn't bring any trouble _as it struck the base of the mountain.

As Tails turned to leave the room, a blinding flash of light from the window caught his eye. Sonics window, like his own, over looked the forest beyond the home, so it wouldn't be obscured by the mountain. Briefly after the flash, a dull but soft 'boom' could be heard. After recovering from the blinding light, Tails looked at Sonic to make sure he was still asleep before looking out of the window to see what the flash was. He seen a smoking crater in the ground. The suspicious and curious fox left the room quickly but quietly, closing the door behind him. He struggled to his room to fetch the other crutch before heading downstairs and outside to see what had happened.

He struggled down the steps from out of the house but reached the bottom eventually. Moving towards the impact area, Tails tried to make out a shape from the smoke. After a minute or so, the smoke cleared to reveal a meteor that could fit three of Tails in easy. But it's size wasn't what was scaring the fox. It wasn't the thought of if it had struck a few minutes later, it would have crushed his house. It was what was rising up from the meteor. A purple gas-like substance rose from the smouldering object. Tails was in shock. It looked strikingly like that of his dream. _Did I see into the future? A premonition?_ Tails' heart was racing as he watched the gas forming shapes in the dark night sky.

A few moments of entrancement suddenly turned into fear. The rising gas started to form a shape above the meteor that held in place longer than the previous patterns. Tails instinctively turned to run, forgetting he still had crutches and fell over. He quickly scrambled to his feet, grabbed his crutches and moved towards the steps as fast as his tired arms would let him. The forming creature, a great dragon-shaped demon, stretched its wings as it stood on top of the blackened meteor. Bowing its head down and raising its wings high above itself, it prepared for flight. Tails was stumbling up the stairs. 'Sonic! Sonic, help me!' Tails cried to the night sky as he continued to scramble frantically up the steps. There was no response except an echo of Tails' fear-filled voice. The strange gas creature smashed its wings down towards the ground as it raised its head at the same time. The force of the wind obliterated the meteor, shattering it completely, as well as widening the crater further. Tails reached the top of the steps and crawled to the doorway, long abandoning his crutches. He climbed to his feet, trying his best to ignore the returning pain in his left leg and limped to the door as fast as he could. But it was too late. Tails turned round to check where the possessed smoke was. It was rising high in the sky, directly where the annihalated meteor lay. It quickly pulled down into a direct dive towards what was left of the meteor. Tails tried to run, but nearly stumbled and threw his balance off. He regained control before attempting again, but the demon had now reached his level. It soared towards him as the poor fox turned round. The demon quickly became a thin stream of purple gas before hitting Tails with enough force to blast him through the door. Tails landed halfway in the living room on his back, before bouncing up and landing again, rolling across the floor and slamming into the counter seperating the living room from the kitchen on his side.

Sonic lay fast asleep when he heard a crashing noise from downstairs. Jolting awake, he sat up. He was completely unaware of the bowl as he quickly climbed out of bed and rushed downstairs to see the commotion. He found the door laying in splinters. Two small pieces hung on the doorframe, still attatched to the hinges. One shortly fell off. Sonic looked down the path of the destruction to a barely concious fox. 'Tails!' Sonic cried out, rushing to his brother's aid. 'Tails! What happened?!' Sonic said as he tried to help the fox to his feet, but shortly gave up when he seen the poor kit squirm in pain. Nothing was bleeding, but the ruined door spoke for itself. Tails could hardly think, let alone explain. Pain returned to his head and leg quickly, as well as several other parts of his body. Although it wasn't as bad as the hospital, it was still unbearable. His whole body throbbed and complained. Tails began to phase out yet again, his vision blacking out.

Sonic shook the unconcious fox gently to try to wake him up, but it was no use. He picked him up and carried him upstairs before setting him gently in his bed. He then headed downstairs and outside to see what had caused the colossal damage. A large smouldering crater lay in the ground infront of the house. He couldn't see what had caused it, or how it could have harmed Tails, but he was sure it wasn't welcome. He walked back through the ruined door and upstairs to his bedroom. Still not noticing the bowl, he climbed into bed and fell asleep almost immediately, despite how worried he was.


	5. An old face returns

Sorry I took so long in uploading this today, I had problems logging on.

What is this demon that has attacked Tails? What has it done to him? What is Eggman planning? Wait, we already know if you've guessed by now. And will Sonic notice that bowl?! Meh, that's not really important so... Longest chapter so far, with over 7,500 words. Bloody hell...

Reading through some of the previous chapters out of boredom, I've found a few missing words and grammar errors. I feel deeply ashamed and embarrased by these as it is not like me to make such mistakes. I have gone through all of the chapters to double- and triple-check that these mistakes have been corrected. Four words: I feel severely violated.

And by the way, a section of this story says Tails puts his right hand behind his back in embarrassment while he writes a note down. To avoid confusion, I've always thought Tails to be a leftie for some reason. I can use the excuse that being left handed is somewhat part genetical to make Artemis left handed too. :P

Oh yeah, I forgot the boring part. Disclaimer: -.-' I don't own Sonic, Tails or any related characters. All copyright Sega and Sonic Team. Amadeus and Rosemary Prower are copyright Archie comics. This story and any OC are copyright me. © see? :)

Read, review, enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 5: An old face returns

Sonic woke with a start. _First thing's first_ was his first thought. He slipped out of bed (still not noticing the bowl of warm water) and slipped his shoes on. He walked out of his room, across the hall and into the fox's bed. He found the battered fox sleeping soundly. To check he still wasn't unconcious, he walked over and gently shook the fox. Thankfully, Tails woke up. Bleary eyed, and a little nauseous, Tails slowly looked around, taking in his surroundings. Quickly, after realising where he was, he bolted upright with a fearful look on his face. He looked around for something that Sonic couldn't see.  
'Tails? What's the matter?' Sonic said as he tried to calm down the exasperated fox.  
'Where is it?!' Tails said in a panicky voice.  
'What? Where's what Tails? There's nothing here that can harm ya. Just calm down...' Sonic exclaimed as he looked into the blue irises filled to the rim with fear. Tails slowly began to calm down, realising that he was over reacting to something that no longer existed. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to help calm his nerves. Sonic was tempted to ask Tails what had happened the night before, but thought it better to leave it until the fox had calmed down completely. Instead, after a few minutes of making sure Tails was going to be okay with his absence, Sonic went downstairs to make them breakfast.

Five minutes later, Sonic returned to Tails' bedroom with a tray with two plates of Tails' favourite breakfast meal. Sonic set it on the fox's lap and took one of the plates as the evidently hungry fox began to eat his own.  
'So what happened last night Tails?' Sonic said as he realised that Tails had calmed down due to his appetite. Tails gulped down a mouthful before he reluctantly began to explain. It took him a few moments to remember everything and to quickly come up with a story that didn't include putting Sonic's hand in the bowl in the middle of the night. Instead, he said that he couldn't get to sleep and played some games to try to tire himself out when he seen a flash from outside the window.  
'I went downstairs to see what had happened, looked outside and there was this great, black meteor that had struck infront of the house,' Tails exclaimed with a hint of fear in his face again. The memory of the attack was too embedded into his mind to fully put him at ease again. He explained the purple gas-like substance taking a physical form and the dream he had in the hospital.  
'Why didn't you tell me about this dream, bro?' Sonic asked with anxiety that Tails hadn't told him of such a dream.  
'I didn't think it was important and I didn't want you to get worried,' Tails replied while his expression changed to sadness and guilt. Sonic understood and nodded for Tails to carry on. Eager to get off the subject of the dream, Tails carried on immediately.

After a few minutes of explaining, Tails reached the point of where he had been blasted through the door.  
'It just suddenly turned into a stream of smoke and hit me in the chest. All I remember after that is you coming downstairs to me and then everything went black.' Tails finished, with another fearful look now that he had to relive the previous night's events.  
'Don't worry. If it comes back again, it'll have me to answer to.' Tails' spirit lifted slightly as he thanked Sonic for his promise and the delicious breakfast as Sonic took the plates and tray downstairs to put in the sink before going outside to collect Tails' crutches.

* * *

A guard bot floated past the entrance. It stopped for a moment and looked around the desert wasteland that surrounded the base. It then turned forwards and carried on with its route. Had it been living, it would have quit a long time ago. Nothing ever attacked or infiltrated the base. Until tonight.

A dark figure swooped high over the base. Picking a spot, the trespasser retracted its wings and dived towards the landing spot. As she got closer, she spread her wings back out and landed safely on the roof of one of the many bunkers outside. Spotting a grate on the rooftop, she walked over to it. Opening the grate, she slid into the ventilation shafts, where she would be able to access the entire base. Securing the grate back on, she carefully slid down the ventilation system. When she landed, she removed her mask so she could breathe properly. _Eggy sure isn't showing off this time _Rouge thought to herself. Indeed, instead of a series of bunkers, Eggman would normally build a large tower, or his desired 'Eggmanland'. Rouge began to navigate her way through the maze of ventilation shafts. Unlike normal, her target wasn't information, or a chaos emerald – she already had one and this base didn't hold any anyway. Eggman kept his only one on his personel all of the time. Taking out a small PDA system, she pressed a few buttons and a map of Eggman's ventilation system quickly appeared on screen. Having pre-plotted a route, she followed the directions towards her desired location.

It took the bat a little less time than she had anticipated. She had come across three laser grids that had been marked on her map, so she was sure it was correct. Reaching her destination with little hassle, she stowed the PDA before checking the room below was clear. Once satisfied there were no robots or security cameras, she quietly opened the grate below her and slid into the room. It was very dark, so Rouge used her trusty supersonic waves to track where everything was. She quickly found what she was looking for and took out a glowing white chaos emerald from her heart-shaped storage compartment on her chest. Walking over to a pedastal, she placed the chaos emerald in a slot next to a large object that it was connected to. The lights suddenly came on. Rouge jumped at this and thought she had been seen. After a few moments of silence however, she was certain she hadn't.

Light temporarily blinded his eyes. They quickly adjusted and everything began to come in to focus. A few bubbles floated past his vision as the breathing mask let out some carbon dioxide. A figure moved over the cryo tube as it examined the activity. _You took your time_ the container's occupant thought to himself with a rarely seen smile as a hissing sound could be heard. The container's door swung open followed by a familiar voice.  
'Well, look what the bat dragged in' Rouge exclaimed in a mocking voice to the mystery figure. The steam cleared to reveal a black and crimson hedgehog removing the breathing mask. Shadow stood up and rolled his head from side to side. _I hate being in that thing_ Shadow thought to himself. Then he looked at his partner and nodded to show his appreciation.  
'Typical. You help a guy out and all he does is nods,' Rouge retorted in mock annoyance. Shadow let the matter go and took the chaos emerald that was used to release him from the cryo tube. He placed his hand on Rouge's shoulder, closed his eyes, focused on a particular place and said 'Chaos Control!' and instantly, the duo disappeared in the blink of an eye.

* * *

_What was that thing? Where did it come from? _Tails was relaying the previous night's events without feeling scared anymore. But he didn't know what had happened to it afterwards either, and feared it could return at any moment if it chose to. Tails decided to go downstairs to inspect the wreckage. Climbing out of his bed, he reached for his crutches and slipped them on. His arms had lost quite a bit of energy from last night's attack and slowly and unsteadily headed for the stairs. Then he remembered about the bowl. He listened for any activity coming from Sonic to check he was busy. Sure enough, he was cleaning the dishes and Tails siddled over to the other side of the hallway and into Sonic's room. He dashed over to the table as fast as the crutches would allow him to and grabbed the bowl, hoping Sonic hadn't noticed it beforehand. With the bowl in one hand, he limped over back to the hallway and towards the bathroom where he emptied the contents. He then limped back to his room and slipped the bowl back under his bed. _That was close_ Tails thought to himself before setting off downstairs to help out Sonic, who he knew would object anyway and would tell him to just sit down and watch the television or something.

* * *

As expected, this is exactly what happened. Half an hour had passed since Tails' trip for the bowl and already Sonic had convinced him to sit down and relax while Sonic did all the chores. Lucky for Sonic, there weren't many anyway, so he had gone outside for five minutes for a short run up and down the meadows. Tails sat and channel flicked to find something suitable and enjoyable to watch. Eventually giving up, he switched it off and was tempted to go down the workshop that Sonic had still barred him from. He stared longingly at the door that lead down to it, but knew better than to disobey Sonic, or anyone who was concerned for his health for that matter. Tails was left in utter boredom. Unable to do his hobbies, unable to run with Sonic and unable to watch anything that suited his interests left Tails in a state of dissatisfaction and somewhat lonliness. Tails eventually gave up on thinking and lay down, using his tails as a pillow. He began to close his eyes, in the hope that when he woke up he would have something to do. A dream began to form in his mind to entertain him in the meantime.

The next thing to happen, Tails wished that the events were a dream. A sharp, short jab of pain bursted throughout his entire body, causing him to sit upright immediately and brought him out of his almost sleeping state. Tails breathed deeply for a few seconds, thinking it was just his imagination being over active again. But the pain returned, only it lasted for a much longer time than half a second. A tightening pain began to envelope his body. It wasn't concentrated on any part of him. It ranged from his toes to his ears and tips of his tails. He rolled over the side of the sofa and onto the floor on his hands and knees. The crushing pain quickly tightened around his body as Tails began to shake violently. It felt like being crushed in a car compactor that was very slowly closing, stopping at the border line of crushing the helpless victim. Tails fell on his side and began to squirm, his face contorted in pain. What felt like electrical surges began to pulse through his body in long, lasting, painful waves. The devastating feeling of being tortured from the inside seemed to be returning on a much larger scale. Tails couldn't hear anything, not even his own voice when he tried to call for help. Seconds felt like hours as the pulsing/crushing mixed pain continued to weaken the poor fox as his body began to give up. His vision began to black out, all feeling within his body began to numb. _NO! I... can't... give up..._ Tails thought to himself. _But... how?_ He had no idea on how to fight a force powerful enough to hurt him like this without an external source and without any kind of help available.

He kept his eyes closed, trying to think. But all thinking did was bring back sad times where he had been treated unfairly or bullied. These images reminded him of the pain he had been through, how it had scarred him throughout his life and the damage it had caused to him as a whole. Tails began to cry at these thoughts, along with the unendurable pain, as they streamed through his mind. As he did so, the pain began to get worse. It felt like his skeleton was on the brink of obliteration and the electrical surges would soon fry him enough to make him edible to anyone who wished to. As images continued to stream, so did the pain. The image of Cosmo as a gigantic tree with the Sonic Power Cannon primed at it flashed in his mind. Remembering when he fired how much pain it had caused him. The despair that followed. These final images seemed to have done something to the pain. It suddenly began to tighten at a massive scale, his body feeling like it was now being crushed to a pulp and he was sure that the electrical surges would duelly kill him if the crushin didn't. Then Tails realised that the pain was possibly being somehow fuelled by his thoughts. _Maybe if I think happy thoughts... maybe the pain will go away..._ he wasn't sure if it would work, but it was worth a try. He tried as hard as he could to think of the good times he had. When he first met Sonic and how happy he was when he was finally appreciated for his unique abilites. _Success!_ Tails thought to himself as the pain imminently began to loosen up slightly. He started thinking of more things that had made him happy. When he had first met Chuck. When he had helped Sonic to save Cream and Cheese from a military base. When he had disarmed the bomb in Station Square and everyone cheered for him. He thought of all the times he had done his little part to contribute to Eggman's defeat. How he had figured out a way out of a Metarex trap and saved his friends. When he first met Cosmo. All these thoughts began to beat away the pain like a tornado beating away flies. Tails slowly began to ease as the pain decreased as quickly as it had come. The pain rapidly declined as he thought of the happiest thoughts he could think of. After what felt like hours of breathtaking and bone-crushing pain, it finally ceased to exist entirely. Breathing heavily and still tense, Tails rolled over onto his back. He kept his eyes shut to help himself calm down from the unexpected attack. _I guess... the pain I've suffered all of these years... has come back to haunt me... But how can mental pain turn in to physical?_ A few moments of thinking and it struck him. _That creature last night! It's... no... it can't be..._ Tails sat up and clutched his stomach, still keeping his eyes shut and fearing the worst. _If it's inside of me... then what does it want?! _Tails had no idea if his theory was true, let alone possible, but it seemed to be the only logical answer to the disappearing monster and the episode he just experienced.

'Tails!' came an alarming voice from nowhere according to the fox. He opened his eyes in shock and looked at the source. A shocked Sonic stood in the doorway, looking like he had seen a ghost.  
'Sonic? What's wrong?' Tails asked. He was sure Sonic wasn't talking about the writhing Tails a second ago as it was clear he had only just arrived. Infact, it seemed as though Sonic was looking over Tails' shoulder. Tails looked around his shoulder to see what Sonic was staring at. Then his mouth fell open.

The living room lay in ruins. The table had been smashed into two halves. The counter seperating the living room from the kitchen had a gaping hole through the middle. What left of the Television was sprayed across the ground. The couch lay on one side and on the wall and looked like it had been attacked from an overly excited and savage dog.  
'Sonic! I swear! I didn't! I don't even know how it happened!' Tails exclaimed. _Wait, I'm the only one in the house, is he really going to believe -  
_'Calm down and tell me what happened,' Sonic said, although it did seem evident that he was uncertain of the fox's story, even if he knew Tails wouldn't, or couldn't, do so much damage in the space of five minutes. Tails hastily explained the pain he had just gone through. He was desperate to prove it wasn't him. He had no idea how long the pain had lasted, but he was certain the devastation wasn't his own doing. Sonic listened to every word without interruption. Tails started looking exasperated and on the brink of crying again out of fear and desperation.

Tails finished his explanation and nothing more was said for a few moments. Sonic had concluded that there was no way that Tails could come up with such a story so fast, or that he could of done all of this damage anyway. Tails awaited a response from Sonic and worried what the consequences would be if Sonic decided that Tails was lying. _I wouldn't blame him _Tails thought _it does sound a bit far-fetched. But its the truth, you've gotta believe me!_ Tails' desperation to prove his innocence became so desperate he finally started to shed a tear. Sonic walked over to his distraught little brother and placed a hand on his shoulder.  
'Dont worry, I believe ya,' Sonic said as his green eyes stared into Tails' blue ones. Tails, needing comfort from being so upset, leapt forward and took Sonic into a hug that seemed to last a lifetime for the fox. After a while, they departed (Tails reluctantly) and Sonic set about cleaning the place up. Without objection, Tails grabbed his crutches and tried to help out as best he could.

* * *

Shadow stood on a hill, over looking the city beyond. He had no idea on what to do now that he was back. He had no intentions on returning to Eggman to try to recover his memory, but on the other hand he had no idea where to begin. He thought the first place to try would be somewhere with great knowledge on the past. The problem was that his creator, Doctor Gerald Robotnik, was originally from Earth and was not well known on Mobius. He supposed a library would be the most sufficient place to begin. _Maybe the doctor left behind some work during his time here_. Activating his hover boots, Shadow quickly set off towards the city with its towering buildings.

Sky City had everything. From luxury food from around the world to scenic views on its borders. Travellers from everywhere would gather here for such dreamy luxury. Sky University boasts some of the most advanced courses to ever be seen, with the exception of engineering and mechanics. And it was also Shadow's destination. He slid to an abrupt hault at the stairs of the library and headed towards the giant doors. Walking inside, he would have been awed by the amount of bookcases that lingered around the two storey library, had he been that type of person. Unfortunately he wasn't and instead he quickly started scanning the 'R' section, hoping to find something on the doctor.

After an hour of continuously searching, he finally found something that caught his attention. An old, seemingly untouched book lay there in the shelf, gathering dust. It was entitled _'Biological creations: the beginning of an Age'. __Hmm... I was biologically created... this book may hold some answers._ Shadow took the book from the shelf, sat down on a nearby table and began skim reading. _The Space Colony Ark was able to be viewed by both worlds, so maybe the professor did some research on Mobius, as well as the Ark._ Just as he thought this, a chapter entitled _Gerald Robotnik: Project Shadow _met the hedgehog's eyes_._ Shadow sat up at the title. He began to read the full story, bent low over the book. It read:

_Gerald Robotnik: Project Shadow_

_Not much is known about this Project, but much more is known about the Professor. It is said that some of his research was carried out in an abandoned Research Lab deep in the Emulov Jungle. Although this Lab has been found, it has never been accessed and it was soon abandoned after countless attempts to reach the inside, varying from hacking the ancient systems to demolition techniques. None of these seemed to work. This area could hold the key to this alleged 'Project Shadow' and the mysteries surrounding it. Many notes have been inscribed on the wall, including briefly what the project is about and complex mathematical problems where the conclusion made no sense and a brief note saying 'only the ultimate life form shall enter'. The notes suggests to us that Project Shadow is a biological creation of a living being, that is supposedly created to be more powerful than anything to exist (and is nicknamed by Dr. Robotnik, as before mentioned, as the 'ultimate life form'). No one knows if the Project succeeded, let alone exists, but many skeptics believe it does, as well as other things that are most likely false, but still interesting to hear about._

It then went on to unneccesary information and Shadow closed the book and replaced it before setting off at speed (with a yelling librarian on his tail) towards the Jungle. when he reached outside, he realised he had no idea where it was. _Well, this City is supposed to have everything. I'll need to look around for a map of the world before I can continue_. He set off looking around for some sort of directions that would point him towards an information centre, or something that could help him to the jungle.

* * *

Cars jammed up as the rush our begun for people to get home. Angry citizens started yelling as usual. A brown chameleon had jumped out of his car to wrestle a disgruntled Crocodile. Ironically, Team Chaotix, the crime solving team had just happened to be strolling by. Vector, Espio and Charmy strolled through the dispersing crowd. Most citizens of Sky City kept to their cars, despite the continuous rush hours that happened daily. Police regularly patrolled the streets at these times to break up fights that happened during this point of 'crisis'.  
'Heheh, good thing that's not us two over there, is it Espio?' Vector exclaimed to his crime-solving companions.  
'And it never will be either,' Espio pointed out to the large crocodile.  
'Yeah, because I would have you crying in three seconds flat, no doubt about it,' Vector seemed sure that his statement was true, even when it wasn't. Charmy let out a sigh as the needless fight started out.  
'If you can catch me'  
'Whadda ya mean 'if I can catch you?' Of course I can!'  
'Oh really?' Espio said this as he instantly became invisible and slid behind the crocodile.  
'Espio, you show yourself you coward!'  
'Okay.' Espio rematerialised behind the disgruntled crocodile as Charmy hovered in mid air, completely annoyed.  
'Hey, cmon guys, haven't we got a crime to solve?!' Charmy tried to break up the fight.  
'No!' Vector and Espio shouted at the taken aback young bee at the same time.

Charmy turned away, not wanting to watch and starting to feel hungry. Just then, he noticed something in the distance. He hovered higher to see what it was. A black streak dashing through the traffic jam.  
'He guys, look, it's Shadow!' Charmy shouted at his companions, which finally stopped the squabble. They looked at the direction Charmy was pointing in.  
'Hey it is Shadow!' Vector exclaimed and rushed out into the middle of the immobile traffic to flag him down. 'Hey Shadow! Over here!' Shadow heard the voice just as he was about to turn a corner. He looked around to find Vector waving frantically for him. _I'm busy right now, but if they know where the Emulov Jungle is, then I guess they could be helpful_. Shadow skated over to the team. 'Well, if it isn't our old friend Shadow, where have ya been buddy?!' Vector exclaimed as he slapped Shadow on the back. Ignoring the question, Shadow went straight to business.  
'Do you know where I can find the Emulov Jungle?' he was hoping that the 'best investigation team on Mobius' would be able to help him out.  
'Yes. Head South for about 10 miles and it should be there.' Espio answered the hedgehog. 'But why?'  
'I'm doing research' Shadow answered back, which was technically true. After a short farewell, Shadow headed South, back the way he had come towards the jungle.  
'Hey wait! Shadow!' Vector shouted after him, but it was too late.

* * *

The day passed on without much things happening after Tail's incident. Tails had gone about repairing most of the damaged objects while Sonic cleared up debris. Eventually, after fixing and cleaning everything, Sonic had headed upstairs and went to bed. _I don't think hes lying. He wouldn't lie to me, even with something like this. So what caused him to have that pain? Could it be something to do with that creature that attacked last night? _Sonic sat up for most of the night trying to think things over. Tails had eventually lost it after repairing most of the living room and had forced his way into the workshop, no longer able to take the strain of not being able to do his favourite past time. No doubt he had fallen asleep at the desk again and, as normal, Sonic left him to it. _Eggman might know something about this, but I doubt he'll even say anything._ Sonic rolled over, tried to forget about it for now and soon began to fall asleep.

Meanwhile, Tails still worked away frantically at the blueprints for a new engine for the X-Tornado. As fast as the current one could go, he still wanted it to go faster and finally beat Sonic at his own game. He went to stand up to go upstairs and get a glass of water before continuing his designs to quench his thirst. However, he forgot his crutches and carried on walking up the flight of stairs. Only when he reached the kitchen did he realise what had just happened. Surprised, he looked at the cast still wrapped around his leg. _Maybe my leg's healed. But bones don't heal that fast, do they?_ Confused, the fox carried on with what he was doing. _I've gotta see a doctor tomorrow for a check up anyway, so we'll find out what's going on then._ He downed the water in one large gulp before setting back downstairs to the workshop and carry on with the blueprints. Eventually, he began to doze off at the desk. He tried to stay awake for as long as he could, but it didn't help much. Hardly realising, he soon fell asleep.

* * *

Tails woke the next morning feeling somewhat more refreshed than he normally did when he fell asleep in the workshop. He looked around for the still non-existent clock. Putting his right hand behind his back in his classic pose of embarassment and letting out a short chuckle he thought to himself _I still haven't added one. I'll need to leave myself a note or something._ Hand still behind his back, he turned round back to his desk to jot down a note in his notepad before setting off upstairs. He stopped abruptly and realised he wasn't using his crutches. Then he remembered about last night, how he didn't need them then either and decided to take them incase he needed to give them back. _This cast itches like crazy, I can't wait to get it off_.

Sonic was lounging around on the destroyed sofa that had been put back in place, having just returned from a short run. Sonic reminded him that his appointment would be pretty soon, so Tails quickly ate his breakfast (leaving spilt milk on the counter in a rush). Luckily, the kitchen had remained relatively unharmed from the mystery attacker so the milk hadn't gone off whilst in the fridge. Tails quickly explained to Sonic what had happened to his leg, how it had healed at an alarming rate. Sonic gave Tails the thumbs up and said 'told ya you'd be up and about pretty fast!' Although they both knew it wasn't true as Sonic hadn't mentioned a word on how Tails would recover, slow or fast.

The duo headed outside under a cloudless, bright blue sky where the sun shone brightly, showing it was nearly the end of winter and the beginning of a lovely spring. Tails decided he wanted to go as fast as his tails could propell him. Sonic accepted the request.  
'Be careful though, we don't want any more damage to your leg, okay?' Tails nodded with a short chuckle before setting off at a run and spinning his tails as fast as he could and he was shortly lifted off his feet from the propelling and was picking up speed as he raced down the meadows towards Sapphire City. Sonic, who had given him a short head start, quickly caught up. Tails tried his best to go at full speed. The wind rushed by him as they stormed down the meadows towards the City. The long stretch gave Tails plenty of time to stop if he needed to. His bangs went well over the top of his head, his ears nearly flattened backwards as the rushing wind forced them down. Tails blinked a few times to get a few tears caused by the rushing wind out of his eyes. _This feels wonderful! I don't think I've ever gone this fast before!_ Tails thought to himself excitedly as the landscape rushed past in a blur, so fast that Tails would be unable to take it all in. He strived on, trying to keep up the pace in an effort to out do himself rather than impress Sonic. It felt wonderful to go at such a speed without the help of technology.

In a few short minutes they reached the border of the City and Tails began to slow himself down. His panting was'nt even very heavy. Infact, he felt so pumped from it, he wanted to go again for the thrill. He stood with a smile on his face, clearly pleased he had been able to keep up the same pace the whole way through.  
'When have you been able to go that fast?' Sonic exclaimed, clearly astonished at his little brother's sudden speed boost. Still unable to talk, Tails shook his head, not knowing what to say. When he finally caught his breath, Tails asked 'how fast... was I... going?' Sonic shook his head that said 'wouldn't know', but he knew that Tails had beaten his personal record. _He may not be as fast as me, but he's sure getting close._ Although the speed he was going at was nowhere near the sound barrier, it was clear that Tails was making quick progress. After a moment of catching his breath fully, Sonic and Tails entered the city and towards the hospital at a much slower, walking pace.

* * *

'Strange. It seems that both the concussion and the leg have been fully repaired,' the doctor told Tails as she removed the bandage still on Tails' head and another doctor split the cast open to remove it. Tails put on his shoe and instantly began to scratch his leg due to the itchiness. 'Thanks doc!' Tais said with a smile as he was finally able to relieve the itching sensation that had built up underneath the cast. He stood up off the table to go tell Sonic, who was waiting outside, the good news.  
'Cool!' Sonic exclaimed as he gave Tails the thumbs up after Tails had quickly explained that everything was ok and that he had fully recovered.  
'We don't know how he healed so fast, but I guess some people do faster than others' the doctor exclaimed as she removed a pair of latex gloves. She said that he was in perfect condition to perfom normal tasks without hassle, but if he encounters any problems, physical or mental, they should contact the hospital ASAP. Sonic wasn't sure whether he should tell them about Tails' painful episode, because it seemed to be a fusion of the two and seemed to have disappeared after much more 'enjoyable' memories. Sonic decided to keep it between themselves, but if it happened again he would be at the hospital doors as fast as he could run. Tails stretched out his leg before they set off for the exit.

Back outside, Tails had seen something that reminded him of a well-known fact about the E&M University. Tails asked whether they could head for the University and Sonic agreed, but bewildered on the fox's intentions. _Maybe he wants to see his father at work_ Sonic concluded. He then realised that Tails had already crossed the road and was heading towards the University. 'Hey Tails, wait up!' Sonic shouted after the over excited fox before giving off a short burst of speed to reach the hurrying fox in less than a second.  
'Heheh, sorry Sonic. I guess I'm too excited.' _Yep, he's going to visit his dad alright _Sonic thought with a smile as he turned his attention to the University as they turned a corner.

After a few minutes of patient walking and crossing roads, the duo arrived at the University. Tails didn't stop to marvel its beauty like he would normally do and headed straight in. He had previously memorised the path to his father's office, and his healed concussion had brought this back ages ago. He followed the mental image he had formed in his mind and soon reached his father's office door. Knocking three times, a familiar voice called 'enter' and Tails opened the door and walked in.  
'Hi dad!' Tails greeted his father with a short wave.  
'Tails! How's the head and leg?' Amadeus asked as Sonic entered too.  
'Good as new. I can remember everything too!' Tails said with joy as his father smiled. 'Dad, I wanted to ask you a favour.' Tails added with a hint of uncertainty in his voice.  
'Oh?'  
'I was... I was wondering... I was wondering if I can join the University.' There was a pause. Tails' face was eager and somewhat worried, possibly by the reaction that was going to come of it.  
'And why do you want to do that?' Amadeus broke the silence with this question which Tails had an answer ready for.  
'Well, everyone knows that the University has the best engineering technology in Mobius and I was hoping that by joining I could use them for building things that could help us against Eggman.' Tails looked in the robotic eye of his father. It reminded him of the new-found hatred he had for Eggman, and how much he wanted to get him back for it. Anger began to swell up inside of the fox again, but being naturally passive, it soon resided and Tails quickly calmed down without showing any change in mood.  
'You won't be able to join the University,' Amadeus said firmly. Tails' heart took a dive into the pit of his stomach. _But... It could help us stop Eggman... _'However, I will give you permission to use the facilities.' Tails' heart immediately returned to its normal resting place at these words before giving a leap.  
'Really?! You mean it?!' Amadeus nodded with a smile at his son's gratitude. Tails couldn't wait to get the X-Tornado to the University and give it a new engine. He already had it planned out on his blueprints and all he needed was the parts.

* * *

Shadow stood on top of a cliff overlooking the Emulov Jungle. As its name suggests (Emulov backwards is infact volume), there was a lot of noise being emitted. These ancient noises no one had ever found the source of – there was no wildlife in the jungle for some strange reason. The abandoned facility was easily visible in a less dense patch in the jungle about a mile from where Shadow stood. It was covered in vines and bushes, but it stuck out like a sore thumb in the sunsetting landscape. Shadow quickly decided on his next plan of action as he jumped down the cliff and soared, free falling, towards the ground. After a second of free fall, Shadow curled into a ball and controlled himself to pull up to avoid smashing the ground. As he skimmed the grassy surface, he pulled out as he activated his hover boots and raced through the loud depths of the seemingly ever-lasting dense jungle, dodging brambles and jumping over roots showing up over the ground with lightning fast reflexes.

After a minute of running and dodging, Shadow suddenly jumped up to the top of a nearby tree to check he was heading in the right direction. He found that he was only actually about twenty yards away from the research lab. Shadow raced back down and towards the abandoned lab, reaching its wall within seconds. Shadow took a left and scanned the walls for an entrance. He soon found the front door, partially concealed in overgrown vines, but still visible. Scanning the front, their seemed to be no visible way in opening the door. _Perhaps if I remove some of these vines, I can find a way._ Shadow swept his hand over the vines to push them out of the way. As he did so, his hand came in to contact with the door and instatly there was a whirring sound. Shadow took a step back to view his accidental handiwork as the doors slowly slid apart. Shadow entered the one room research facility, examining its contents. Six cryotubes lay in rows, three on each side. A central computer sat at the other end of the room. A table with empty science equipment lay next to it. The current state of the room clearly showed that it had not been used for quite some time. Shadow headed straight for the computer and switched on the power button. _Finally, I'm going to uncover my past! _Shadow's heart was surprisingly racing as the screen began to load. Once everything had loaded, Shadow began to scan through the multiple files for something that suggested his existence or his bond with Maria. Something else, however, caught his attention. _Mysterious_ _black meteor to strike in approximately 50 years._ _Please watch this. URGENT. _Shadow, overwhelmed by curiosity, loaded the file. It had been written before the time he had been created.

Gerald Robotnik's face came up on screen – it was video and audio recorded.  
'Hello Shadow.' Shadow was startled by this. _How does he – _'if you're wondering how I know who you are, it is because I have especially designed this lab so that only you can access it.  
'Now, back to the subject. I want to inform you of a mysterious meteor that will be striking in approximately fifty years from when this video is recorded. I am not sure when you will be watching this. The meteor may have already struck when this is being viewed. But inform you I must. Although I am unaware of its origin, or what it can do, I am aware that it is a... strange... meteor. As you are probably aware, a meteor shower skims the atmosphere of Mobius every fifty years. As they skim the surface, the begin to pick up speed, and they all fall at relatively the same speed, as is meant to.  
'However, this meteor fell significantly slower than the rest. It was the first to enter the atmosphere, but the last to leave it. It in fact stayed in the atmosphere for three days. I studied it in this time and found that it left a purple substance behind it. After checking with an ancient civilisation that I had heard had predicted something like this, I think it is safe to conclude that it posesses some sort of creature that can only enter one particular person. I am not sure what it can do, or even if the meteor is just different with no real reason at all, or if it is connected to anything paranormal. But I do advise you, Shadow, that you take a look in to it as it could endanger all of those on Mobius.  
'And on a final note, if my calculations are correct, there is a possibility that it could land before the meteor shower, or maybe after it.' The log ended abruptly there. Shadow had no idea what this 'meteor' would look like, or where it would land. _Once I've finished here, I'll see whether I can find more about this __meteor_._ Perhaps doctor Eggman can find some more information with the files he still has from doctor Robotnik._ Shadow continued to browse through the files and quickly located the ones he wanted and began to watch them. Sadly, they did not suggest much to his origin, except that of what he already knew. Shadow sighed as he turned off the computer and headed back out into the jungle and back to the City. The doors closed behind him and he took one final look. He found a series of complex calculations that lead to a final conclusion: Angel Falls. _Maybe that's where this meteor is going to land._


	6. Eggman's last straw

Things are going to get a little more heated now, with Eggman pushing the rules to their limits.

Disclaimer: is there any way in doing this story WITHOUT having to put this in every chapter? I don't own Sonic, Tails or related characters – copyright Sega and Sonic Team. Amadeus and Rosemary are copyright Archie comics. Artemis, this story and any other OC characters I may add are mine.

Got really annoyed with editing this in the document manager. Things kept screwing up so I needed to restart over and over again. DX

* * *

Chapter 6: Eggman's last straw

'Arty, come and get your lunch!'  
Rosemary was in the kitchen and had just finished preparing her youngest son's lunch as the toddler walked in.  
'Lunch!' Artemis exclaimed as he jumped up and down excitedly for his plate. Rosemary chuckled and handed him his plate before taking her own and heading into the living room.

Mother and son sat alone eating their lunches. Artemis sat on the floor watching the television as usual. This show had something to do with teaching small children sums. The question was a typical 'what does two plus two equal?' Rosemary awaited the half-expected question from Artemis that soon came.  
'Mummy, what does it mean?' Rosemary smiled and walked over to her son. She knew full well that he was a visual learner and preferred to learn things by counting objects rather than numbers.  
'If I have two apples here, and two apples here' she placed two groups of two sliced pieces of apple on either side of her plate, 'how many is there?'  
'Four!' Artemis responded quickly. Despite not being able to put two and two together very well, putting it at this point of view seemed to work like a wind-up key for a grandfather clock for Artemis.

Rosemary helped Artemis with the maths as they slowly ate their lunches, leaving some apple slices for the counting. All of a sudden, a loud, ear splitting ringing could be heard from seemingly every direction possible. Rosemary blocked Artemis' ears instinctively and covered her own with her other arm. The windows soon shattered into pieces, spraying all over the lounge. Rosemary covered her son, even though the glass did not even get close to them. The ringing abruptly stopped and Rosemary looked around at the missing windows to find a large robot with twin cannons and speakers – the E-72, closely followed by Eggman in his usual Eggpod.  
'Aah, Mrs. Prower I presume. Pleasant day, isn't it?' Rosemary, ignoring the taunting, said nothing and held the scared Artemis close to her chest, determined to keep him safe, even if it cost her dearly. 'Hand over the child, or there will be consequences, and believe me, those consequences will get me the child whether you like it or not.' Rosemary was startled. _I don't know what you want with my son, but to go as far as __killing__ me for him – _'Oh dont worry, I won't kill you. Looking at you're expression, I presume that's what you thought I'd meant. No, you'll just be out cold for a couple of hours. But either way, the child is mine!'

Despite how passive Rosemary seemed, she was defiant and refused to give up without a fight. 'Go ahead, just try to take Artemis from me!' she retorted with absolute rage, teeth bared as Artemis continued to sob silently into his mother's arms.  
'Very well... E-72, shock her.' At these words, a turret popped out from under the E-72 and took aim at Rosemary, who had now fully covered her son to protect him with all her will. A stream of electricity struck Rosemary like a small bolt of lightning. The electrical surges knocked her out instantly and she toppled over, leaving the scared Artemis free for the taking. The front of the E-72 opened up to reveal a small cannon that would fire a laser net to secure its net fired at Artemis, entangling the small cub inside it and drew the writhing, screaming and crying fox in. As it brought him in, the cannon moved itself upwards to reveal a sort of tunnel that lead to the rear container of the E-72. Artemis was brought through before the cannon lowered itself back down to close the tunnel and its protective outer casing closed up. Artemis now lay, immobile but concious, crying like there was no tomorrow. The sound-proof glass made his screams for his mother and father unhearable as the E-72, accompanied by Eggman, flew off to the East, away from the desolated house where the unconcious Rosemary still lay.

* * *

I wonder what he'll build...

Amadeus was thinking of what had just happened between him and his son as he headed off home, seeing that he had no more classes to teach until the last period. He turned the corner into his street. From the angle that he was at, he could not see the windows of his living room. Even if he could see them, they wouldn't be there anyway. Turning into his drive, he locked the car doors and headed inside the house.  
'Honey, I'm home!' he called out as he always did. After a few short moments, Amadeus was startled because there was no response. He checked the kitchen, which still showed signs that a lunch had been made. _Something's wrong... she usually cleans up afterwards..._ Amadeus walked into the living room and received the shock of his life.

Glass lay strewn across the living room carpet. Rosemary lay unconcious among it. 'Rose!' Amadeus hurried over to his wife's side and tried to wake her up. 'Rose! Rose!' Thinking frantically, he ran over to the phone. He was just about to phone the police and the ambulance service when a voice from behind caught him off guard.  
'Amadeus... he... took Artemis...' Rosemary had just come round and tried to sit up. Amadeus ran to her side and tried to help her to her feet.  
'Who? Who did?'  
'Eggman...' Amadeus' heart froze at these words. He sat his wife on the couch before hurrying back to the phone.

* * *

Tails sat at home repairing some of the broken objects. Right now, he was concentrating on the telivision, which seemed to be proving the easiest of them since it was the only one that had anything to do with technology. He was also pleased that he was finally able to use the new equipment that Sonic had got him for his birthday. He was halfway through fixing the screen when the phone rang. Bewildered on who the mystery caller was, Tails set everything on the table and headed over to the phone.  
'Hello?'  
'Tails! Something's happened! We need you over here as fast as you can! Hurry!' Amadeus' voice sounded panicky and alerted Tails right away.  
'Ok! I'll be over there as soon I can!' Tails set the phone down and headed towards the hangar as Sonic came downstairs.  
'Whoa, what's the rush bro?'  
'Sonic, something's happened! I don't know what, but my dad said it's urgent! We need to get there now!' Sonic nodded and followed Tails into the hangar as he raced towards the X-Tornado.

Tails spun his tails and flew right in to the cockpit while Sonic jumped on to the wing. The cockpit closed as Tails hurriedly put his safey harness on and switched on the engines at the same time. He pressed a button which opened the hangar doors and the artificial palm trees parted to allow space. The engines powered up and Tails thrusted the joysticks forward and the X-Tornado quickly began to accelerate. Deploying the stabiliser wings, Tails then pulled backwards on one joystick to lift off after he had gained enough speed. Quickly swivelling round to face the city, Tails put the engines at their top speed, breaking the sound barrier. This caused water vapour to compress at the nose and engines of the high-speed jet and they quickly dispersed as the sonic boom soon followed. Tails blasted across Angel Falls at a speed to rival Sonic's towards Sapphire City. He didn't know what had happened, but for someone to sound so frantic must have meant that something bad has happened.

* * *

In under just three minutes, Tails began to slow down as he approached Sapphire City. He quickly spotted out his father's house and dived down for a landing. Pulling up at the last second, he quickly switched to the X-Cyclone and landed on the road. He didn't even bother to wait for all of the systems to shut down properly when he jumped out of the cockpit and ran towards the house, Sonic in quick pursuit. Rushing inside the house and in to the living room, the duo found the scattered glass across the floor, as well as a crying Rosemary and an equally upset Amadeus.  
'What happened?' Sonic exclaimed.  
'Eggman... Took Artemis...' Rosemary managed to say between sobs.  
'Why would he do such a thing?' Sonic said with a shake of the head as a response from Amadeus.

Tails, however wasn't listening. _Eggman... what are you thinking? If you harm him...! _Tails' face subtly changed into anger again. _This time, you've gone too far Eggman! This time, I'm not holding back!_

* * *

'Mommy! Daddy!' Artemis continued his ever lasting screaming and crying as the E-72 dumped the glass container in a large machine that had four pillars of metal that bent inwards halfway up. Artemis was curled up in a tight ball, with his tails wrapped over his head. One was covering his eyes to stop the tears, and the spot that concealed them was now very damp and the fur flattened down. _I'm glad that thing is sound proof _Eggman thought to himself.  
'Decoe, Bocoe, switch on the machine!' Egmman waited patiently for the whirring to begin. It didn't come however. Curious, he looked round to the control panel to see what they were up to. He couldn't tell as the robots had long since departed. Eggman growled before pressing a button next to a microphone that would call out through the entire base.

'Decoe, Bocoe! Get down here immediately!'  
'No Doctor!' Came an immediate response from Bocoe from the speakers. 'We're having nothing to do with this!' Eggman grumbled before turning to the console and switching on the machine. As expected, it began to give off the whirring sound that he had expected a few moments ago. After a few seconds, streams of data began to come up on screen, and a simplified version on the screen next to it. The machine was measuring Artemis' brainwaves of everything he was thinking. _Soon, when he's calmed down, I'll have him copy some movements and analyse his brainwaves and create a new robot. In the mean time, I'll start to work on building it._

Artemis stopped screaming, but carried on crying. Scared and lonely, not knowing where he was and too young to know what fighting back even meant, the poor cub lay in silence as the sobs quietened down. Artemis sniffed as he began to get a runny nose.

* * *

Sonic, Tails, Amadeus and Rosemary sat in Tails' workshop. They had returned so that Tails could collect anything they might find handy and then form a plan of how to save Artemis. Rosemary had stopped her crying, but she still seemed too upset to talk. Tails was just inserting both of their chaos emeralds into the X-Tornado to give it as much power as possible while Amadeus and Sonic climbed into the cockpits.  
'We'll be safe Rose, and we'll bring back Artemis. Don't worry,' Amadeus called out to his distraught wife. She briefly nodded as she waved to them as Tails accelerated out of the hangar. They already knew the location of Eggman's base having seen it when passing by one time.

Tails waited for the fake palm trees to part before blasting down the runway and pulling up. He then turned and accelerated to full speed towards the East as the sun began to set in the West behind them. Tails' pent up rage wasn't showing on any part of his body, but angry thoughts streamed through his mind. The charges he was to set were meant to only blow up Eggman's mainframe and vital parts of the base to cause a distraction for Sonic to escape. But Tails had something more sinister in mind.

* * *

The X-Tornado soared through the desert, invisible by the darkened sky. Tails only just made out Eggman's base. He swiftly landed five hundred metres from the base, being cautious of any anti-air turrets. As Tails and Sonic exited, Amadeus climbed in to the cockpit and strapped himself in. He was to fly off as soon as they returned for a swift escape. Sonic ran towards the base, tailed by Tails who was propelling himself with his tails.

A robot patrolling the perimeter turned a corner just as the duo reached the base. Tails grabbed Sonic under the arms and spun his tails to fly them up and over the large wall and into the base. As soon as they landed, they split apart. Sonic was to find Artemis and Tails was to set the explosives.

Tails slipped into an open door unnoticed. He checked round the nearest corner to check nothing was heading his way. Spotting a door, he rushed over to it. The door slid open as he approached and he found himself in a repair room. Luckily, it was unnocupied and Tails quickly found a terminal on the wall. Giving a second check that no one was coming his way, Tails opened up the terminal and began to hack into the mainframe.

Sonic rushed through a series of hallways. As he turned a corner, he quickly found himself stopping right behind a security guard. Sonic backed away slowly, trying not to make any sound whatsoever and hid behind the corner he had just come by. After a few seconds, the robot continued its route through the maze of corridors and Sonic slipped away behind it into another corridor and carried on looking for something that suggested the whereabouts of Artemis. After a few more corridors and another close encounter, Sonic found a room with a sign above it saying 'holding cells'. Smiling at his success, Sonic checked nothing was able to see him before slipping into the automated door.

Tails was now looking at a three dimensional map of the base. The first thing he looked for was where Artemis was. After half a minute of scanning the whole map, he soon found the room – just a few away from the one he was in now. Tails made his mind, sure that it would take Sonic far too long to get here himself, seeing that he was somehwere on the other side of the base. Tails plotted his route and switched the terminal off before taking out an explosive from a small poutch slung around his neck and placing it next to the terminal and setting it to full power. _You'll pay Eggman..._

Sonic found the holding cells completely empty. _He must have him somewhere else._ Sonic slipped back out and went to continue his search. Inconveniently, Eggman came round the corner in his Eggpod. Both of them leaped in shock before Eggman quickly pressed a button to alert the base while Sonic quickly came to his senses.  
'Where is he Eggman?!' Sonic shouted as the klaxons began to blast.  
'You mean the fox? He's safe, so don't you worry about him. I would be more worried about yourself.' That being said, security robots came around the corner, their built-in weapons primed. Sonic looked around for an escape as Eggman backed away to get out of the heat. Sonic looked up to find a vent above the robots and quickly decided on his escape plan. He ran at the robots as they started firing. Jumping up, he landed on top of one and started bouncing from one to the other as their weapons blazed, sometimes hitting each other in the confusion. Sonic jumped up one final time and smashed through the vent before crawling as fast as he could in one direction.

Tails reached the door of where Artemis was confined to. He quickly used the code he had acquired from the terminal to access the door. He found himself in a large circular room with a large container surrounded by four pillars bent over in the middle. One side of the room was lined by a series of computers, one streaming information on screen at an alarming rate. Tails ran over to the container to find a ball of fur lying inside. He pulled out a glass cutter and cut a large hole in the side.  
'Artemis!' Tails called out and a worried and still sobbing face popped up from the fur.  
'Tails!' Artemis called out, his expression changing into one of joy as he recognised his big bother's face. Tails smiled as he ran inside the container to pick up the distraught cub. At that moment, the klaxons began to blast. _Damnit Sonic, what did you do?! _Immediately, a large metal dome closed around the cell and everything went black. Artemis let out a small whimper just as the cell felt like it was moving downwards. Tails couldn't think of a way out and he didn't have any spare charges to help him out of here. Tails patiently waited while Artemis clung on to his neck tightly. The moving feeling suddenly stopped and Tails waited for something to happen.

Sonic crawled through on hands and knees looking for Eggman. _Now that he knows what I want, he'll probably move him somewhere._ Sonic had no luck on finding the doctor but kept on trying. _I hope Tails is ok. _Sonic carried on looking. No doubt there would be some robots in the vents pretty soon, so Sonic prepared to go into a spin dash incase he needed to.

The metal doors slid down to reveal a second, larger domed room. The klaxons could be heard through the walls, but it seemed they had not been placed in here. Tails looked around for an exit. The hole they had come through had been sealed and there was no door in sight to get through. _Looks like I've got no choice...  
_'Artemis, you stay in here while I do something, okay?' Artemis nodded and Tails set him down. He took out a second explosive and flew up to the sealed hole. He attatched the explosive to the metal doors blocking the whole, judged its thicknes and set it to just the right power. He flew back down and into the container and held Artemis incase the cub got scared by the explosion. Tails took out the detonator, se it to the right charge and pressed the button. A large BOOM sounded above as a flaming ball of fire spurted out from the explosion. A few chunks of metal fell on top of the container, but none of them being large enough to shatter it. Surprisingly, Artemis hadn't been scared at all, but watched the fire from the explosion as it cleared out with interest and awe. Tails didn't think much of it and concentrated more on getting the cub out. He slund him onto his back and said 'hold on tight!'  
'Okay,' Artemis said in a hushed voice as Tails stepped back out of the container and flew back up towards the gaping hole in the roof.

Sonic raced through the corridors as more robots pursued him. Typically, they couldn't keep up and soon lost track of Sonic. Sonic stopped to see if there was any way in finding out where he was, or how to get to Artemis. Then he heard a soft, barely audible boom sound through the base. He guessed on its direction and rushed in that direction, hoping something hadn't happened to Tails. He rounded two corners and came face to face with a few robots, which he swiftly spin dashed through and carried on towards the sound of the explosion. Sonic soon found himself stopping infront a doorway which its sign said 'testing lab'. The door was still open which revealed Sonic the contents of the cilindrical room with the analysing computers. Smoke issued from a hole in the ground, but was quickly propelled away by a flying Tails.

'Sonic! I found him!' Tails exclaimed at the bewildered hedgehog as Artemis waved to him.  
'Well done bro! Now let's get outta here!' the trio rushed off with Artemis clinging on to Tails. 'Wait Sonic, there's something I gotta do first. I haven't planted the charges yet.'  
'There's no time bro, and that was only meant to be a distraction, there's no point now.' But Tails was having none of it and was already heading to an elevator that he knew lead directly to the mainframe from looking at the map. Sonic quickly ran in as the door closed and the three of them headed down.

The mainframe's room was a large one that took up several floors. It was what looked like a nearly bottomless pit downwards. The mainframe was suspended on a platform supported by large metal beams and could only be reached by a bridge. Tails ran across the bridge towards the mainframe with Artemis still hanging on. Sonic waited at the door incase anything tried to enter. Tails planted the charges on four generators and a large computer that stored everything that was on Eggman's database.

'Okay Sonic, lets go!' Tails shouted as he ran back across the bridge. Just then, an explosion sounded above. All three looked up to see what had happened to find a large scorpion-shaped robot fly in, closely accompanied by Eggman. The robot had engines on the bottom to keep it in the air as it flew down level with the trio. Where the stinger of a scorpion would be, there was a large laser cannon. It also had a series of metal cubes connected with joints to mimick the arching movement of a scorpion. The cannon ontop was shaped like a stinger aswell. The pincers were actually large, thick rods with high voltages of electricity flowing through them (the whirring of which could be heard) and a joint in the middle. It had eight cameras on the same parts of the body where a normal scorpion would have its eyes, giving it 360 degrees of vision.  
'Don't think you'll be getting away that easily Sonic!' Called out Eggman from above the contraption. 'Egg-Scorpion, fire!' He added on. The stinger arched over the top of the robot and located Sonic immediately. The cannon began to charge. Sonic got ready to dodge its attack. The blast forced the cannon backwards a tiny bit as the cannon fired. Sonic quick-stepped to the left and began to run towards it. He jumped at the edge of the bridge and went into a spin dash towards the cannon, but one of the electrical rods stricked at him and blocked him. Shocking Sonic, it blasted him backwards and he landed on his feet on the bridge.

Tails set Artemis down somewhere safe behind a generator and out of harms way as they watched the ongoing battle. Sonic tried to land on top again by swerving around the rods. This time it worked as they jabbed left, right and center to hit the spinning hedgehog, but always missing and they couldn't reach far enough behind to reach the back when he landed on it. Eggman chuckled as he had seen this flaw beforehand and had a little extra on the stinger. As Sonic ran towards it, the cannon quickly swooped down at lightning speed. Sonic hadn't expected this and it caught him off guard. He managed to swerve away just enough to avoid the full collision, but the shockwave the cannon set off afterwards blasted him back off the back of the Egg-Scorpion. Sonic landed on the side of the bridge and scrambled back up, looking at the bottomless pit below.

Tails saw his chance. Filled with rage from Eggman's deeds, he stopped thinking straight. All he wanted to do was land as much pain as he could create on every part of Eggman. Tails ran off the bridge and began to fly. The Egg-Scorpion spotted his movements with one of the side cameras and spun around to face him. 'Tails, what are you doing?!' Sonic called out, but Tails wasn't listening. He dodged the onslaught of quick jabs from the pincers and landed on the back of the scorpion Like it did with Sonic, the rear mounted cannon went down to jab him with the shockwave. _He's nowhere near as fast as Sonic, he won't be able to dodge that!_ Eggman thought to himself, glad that atleast one of them would be no more hassle.

Then Eggman took in a great gasp, aswell as Sonic. With lightning speed, faster than the stinger coming down, Tails dodged to the right. The cannon withdrew at equal speed as Tails ran towards it. It jabbed out again and again. Every single time, Tails moved faster than was normal for him, or even anyone else in the room (including Sonic), and dodged the pulses with ease. Sonic watched in awe as the fox made the continuous dashing movements towards the root of the cannon. No longer able to point down far enough to reach Tails, it had no choice but to sit and watch, with no mechanisms in place to stop such an attack, since Eggman hadn't intended on this. Tails ran up the long stinger-shaped joints and towards the cannon. Nearly upside down due to the arching, Tails kicked out with as much force as he could on the cannon, spinning round in a summersault as he did so. The cannon was kicked off with ease, like a child kicking an inflatable ball. The now useless cannon flew to the other side of the room before bouncing off the wall and falling down the pit. Tails landed on his feet ontop of the robot where it could no longer get him and instead merely floated – Eggman had not counted on such an event to happen. Tails stood up slowly, his face contorted with rage as he looked up at Eggman. Eggman hastily jumped in fright and attempted to fly out the room, but Tails wouldn't let him get away that easily. Spinning his tails, he flew up with considerable speed and kicked out at the retreating Eggpod. The kick, although it didn't look very powerful, forced a large dent into the side, blasting Eggman throught the hole in the roof that was previously made by the robot and into the night sky, out of sight. The robot hastily retreated after its master.

Tails landed safely down on the bridge. He breathed heavily as he slowly calmed down. Sonic approached him carefully, thinking that the fox might turn on him, and with the amount of power he had just excerted with ease, it wouldn't be wise to upset him further.  
'Tails?' Sonic called out looking thoroughly concerned. Tails looked around, face still contorted with rage. 'Tails? Are you okay?' Tails still breathed heavily as he calmed down. He gazed in to Sonic's green eyes for a few moments as his mind began to think again. Then the realisation of what he did came flooding into him and Tails immediately went wide-eyed and fell to his knees.  
'What... What's happened to me?' Tails said as he looked at his hands before fallinghis head into them. Sonic had no idea what was going on, or what to say. Tails stayed on the ground, thinking of what had just happened and wondering how he had done it and what had made him lose control.

Artemis crawled over to his elder brother. 'Tails?' He said as he reached him. Tails looks round to see the young face of Artemis and remembered why he was here. He stood up and walked over to Artemis and picked him up and placed him on his back again. 'Let's go...' Tails said in a sorrowful voice. Sonic nodded and headed out, followed by a gloomy Tails. Artemis, although oblivious as to what was wrong, knew that something was and kept quiet.

* * *

Amadeus waited patiently for them to arrive. _I hope they're ok._ He watched the base, wondering when there would be any explosions. But there were none_._ He sighed and rested his head on his hand. Then in the distance, he seen something rushing towards him from the base. He quickly grabbed the binoculars from their holster and looked through them towards the fast moving object. It turned out to be Sonic and Tails, with Artemis on his back. Amadeus smiled as he replaced the binoculars and switched on the engines. Sonic and Tails slowed down to a stop next to the fighter as the engines began to roar. Tails flew in the pilot's seat and set Artemis on his father's lap, while Sonic climbed into the rear cockpit.

'Well done! Both of you! And thank you for saving Artemis!' Amadeus said to the other two whom didn't respond. _What's gotten in to them?_ He wondered. Tails closed both cockpits and strapped himself in. Before he set off however, he took out a detonator from the pouch still around his neck. He set it to set off all of the eplosives. _This is what happens Eggman... _Tails thought as he pressed the trigger. He looked around at the base, where a large mushroom-cloud fire ball erupted from it, spreading across the entire base. A second later, the sound of the explosion hit them. The shockwave hit the X-Tornado causing it to vibrate. Sonic hadn't intended on this amount of explosive power to be used and wondered what had gotten in to the normally passive fox. The fire continued to rise over the base, as explosions continued throughout and equipment was blown to pieces. The base soon lay in ruins as the X-Tornado took off and headed back to Angel Falls.

* * *

Tails was still shaking from left over adrenaline as he landed in his hangar. Not a single word had been spoken throughout the trip except Artemis once complaining that he was hungry and Amadeus had promised him he would feed him when they returned. Tails still couldn't think properly and the recent events streamed through his mind as he switched off the egnines and opened the cockpits. Amadeus climbed out with Artemis as Rosemary rushed forward to hug them. Tails gloomily climbed out as Sonic came over to the reunion.  
'Thank you Sonic! Thank you Tails!' Rosemary cried out as she pulled hem into the group hug.  
'Really! It was... nothing!' Sonic managed to say as the hug restricted him from being able to breathe properly. Rosemary released them and Sonic and Tails gasped in air. After catching his breath,Tails didn't talk and headed upstairs with his head down. Everyone watched him, wondering what was going on. When Tails left, silence fell over everyone in the hangar. After a few moments, it was broken by a complaining Artemis who wanted to eat.

Tails walked heavy footed into his room and fell face first into his pillow. _What have I done? And how did I do it?_ Tails pondered on this new-found strength and speed. _The speed I dodged at – I think it was just as fast as Sonic! Maybe faster!_ As Tails continued to try to figure out what he had done and how he had done it, Sonic walked in.

'Tails?' Sonic said with the same concerned voice as he had earlier. Tails raised his face from the pillow to look round. His expression was one of fear and confusion. Sonic sat down next to him as Tails sat up, but didn't dare look him in the eye and instead looked at his feet in shame. 'Are you okay Tails?' Sonic asked. Tails merely shook his head, unable to talk but not tearing his eyes from his feet. 'What happened back there?' Sonic knew it was incredible of what the fox had succeeded, but he also knew that it wasn't normally possible for him to move so fast, or excert enough strength in his legs to send Eggman in to the Stratosphere. What concerned him most was Tails' aggression that followed. It was unnatural for Tails. Sonic remembered someone on Earth calling Tails a pacifist, but that no longer seemed to apply.

'It might be that thing that attacked me. Do you think it's possessing me, Sonic?' This sounded far fetched to both of them, but Tails had concluded as the only possible answer, even if it was illogical. However, it did help explain his unnatural speed and aggression. Sonic didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say. Tails continued to stare at his feet. _If __it has taken over him, how can we stop it? And how do we know for sure? _Tails fell back into his pillow and rolled over onto his face again. Sonic understood that the fox wanted to be left alone for a while and departed.

* * *

Eggman flew over the desert as the Eggpod's auto pilot carried him to his backup base. The large dent in the side had caused several systems to malfunction, such as the communications link, stopping him from calling Bocoe or Decoe as they had fled to the base after refusing to help Eggman. The Egg-Scorpion followed lazily behind. The tail hung limply as the robot had disabled it in order to stop wasting energy to the severed wires. Smoke still rose in the distance in the direction of the base. Instead of being angry, Eggman was somewhat disturbed and scared. _Since when has Tails been able to hit that hard, or run that fast?_ Eggman had no idea on where this excessive power came from, but he was sure it couldn't be good. It was as if the anger inside Tails became energy, changing him physically. The idea made Eggman remember when Sonic had gone berzerk after seeing what one of the Metarex captains had done to two of Sonic's friends, how it seemed that Sonic had forgotten himself and the amount of aggression that the hedgehog excerted on the test robots he was forced to fight. The very thought of the same thing happening to Tails on a much larger scale was almost unthinkable, especially for someone with a personality like Tails'.

A cloud of sand streamed towards Eggman from the direction he was headed at an alarming speed. _Sonic! What do you want now?!_ The speed made it seem it was Sonic moving towards him. Then another thought struck. _What if it's Tails coming back to finish what he started?_ Eggman immediately became nervous and scared as the object continued to soar towards him. It would be pointless running from the innevitable and going upwards wouldn't help if it was Tails. He would only fly up towards him. The Egg-Scorpion was next to useless without its cannon. Eggman merely waited, preparing himself for the worst.  
'Eggman!' came out a much deeper voice as the object grew within earshot. _Huh? _Eggman though to himself. He pressed a zoom-in button on his goggles, to reveal the object was none other than Shadow. _How did he...? Hmm... _'Aah, Shadow! I see you've finally woken up,' Eggman said as Shadow slowed to a hault.  
'Enough of the talk doctor, I need more information on your grandfather,' Shadow said, trying to get straight to the point.  
'I see someone's trying to find out about his past again. You'll get it if you help me defeat a... how should I say it...? improved opponent.' Shadow deciphered the message as being an enemy, most likely Sonic, who has improved his abilities greatly. However, Shadow wasn't going to be used this time. Instead he turned his back and took out the white chaos emerald. 'Have it your way doctor. I'm not going to be a puppet this time. Chaos-!'

'No, Shadow! Wait! Please! Atleast take me back to my base, this thing is moving slower than ever because of the damage and I can't find any other way.'  
'If you give me information first.' Eggman thought this over for a moment and then made a decision.  
'Alright, you have a deal. Now take me back to my base!' Eggman ordered. Shadow, however, stood his ground. 'Give me the information first. I know what you're like doctor and I won't be fooled.' Eggman groaned. 'Fine. Tell me what you want to know and I'll see if I can find it.' Eggman had a database in the backup base that was wirelessly connected to the mainframe, so any information it stored was also sent to the database. This database is also wirelessly connected to the Eggpod, so Eggman could access anything, anywhere.  
'I want to know if the doctor left any notes about a meteor.' Eggman smiled. He knew exactly what the hedgehog was talking about. He had viewed the file once before, but never fully understood what it was talking about. He quickly located the file, deployed a floating screen that opened up and started to play the video.

Gerald Robotnik's head came up immediately and he begun to talk as soon as it started to play.  
'I have recently discovered a meteor that is heading for Mobius. It will land in -' the video skipped to a later part in the video. It had clearly been edited. '- I have found that the ancient civilisation called the Sanerians discovered such a meteor before. After researching this just before I was no longer able to access Mobius, I am convinced that a temple holds the secrets.' A map shown up, showing the location of the temple, which sat on the border of the desert they were in now. 'I was able to do some research on this temple when Mobius was available to me. Apparently, some of the text left on the walls describe such a meteor. This was only recognised by the pictures. The text has never been interpreted due to its complexity and its meaning has therefore been lost to us.' The screen remained on the map for a few seconds before blacking out.

'I've tried finding out things about this base, but their language was too complex to decipher, leaving me unable to find anything else out,' Eggman said as the screen closed up and retreated back into the Eggpod. Shadow turned right to head towards the temple.  
'Shadow, you're forgetting our deal.' Shadow remembered what he had promised for the information. He walked up to the Eggpod (which connected itself to the Egg-Scorpion) put his hand on the front and prepared for a Chaos Control. They blinked out in a flash of blue light and the desert lay a barren, lifeless wasteland.


	7. A new trick

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic or any related characters. They are copyright by Sega and Sonic team. Amadeus and Rosemary Prower are copyright Archie Comics. Any OC characters and this story belong to me.

I keep changing the disclaimer, I know, but I just want it to show what I do and don't own, nothing more so... yeah.

Omg, Tails, what has gotten into him?! He's aggressive! It's not possible, even in the fanfic realm! Even though it is /:l I'm gonna shut up. But yeah, some more shall slowly be uncovered in this chapter and future ones, so don't you worry your cotton socks! Or any other clothing that you possess.

Got nothing else to write here so read, review, enjoy! And some other stuff. Not sure what though... wait for the next chapter when you're finished perhaps? Meh...

* * *

Chapter 7: A new trick

Nine o'clock, and the sun blazed calmly in the bright blue sky. After the recent snow storm, the weather's temperature and quality had increased dramatically. Now no one whore thick clothing to keep themselves warm. Trees and plants had already began to blossom and the morning air was filled by chirping flickies. It was clear that spring was in full swing. People were enjoying the weather without a care in the world.

Except for one. One that had buried himself in sorrow until he had fallen asleep in it. When he woke up, he went downstairs for breakfast and came back into his room to lie on his bed and stare at the ceiling, using his hands as a pillow and both tails slumped over either side of the bed. Tails lay on his back, unblinking. He was unsure of what to do. _If this creature is taking me over, then how can I fight it?_ _It's inside of me, where not even Sonic can protect me_. He doubted he could fight it off with thoughts and mental will power, since the last time he was able to concentrate on a source – the pain. But he didn't know how the creature felt, or what to look for in his mind to fight it off, so even if he did know how to defeat it, he wouldn't be able to – there was nowhere to concentrate his fight on. For the first time in his life since he had first met Sonic, Tails felt truly alone.

He suddenly decided he would take a walk. He didn't want Sonic to know where he was going, so he stood up and walked over to the window. Opening it, he climbed outside and onto the ledge, one foot inside, one foot out. He spun his tails to avoid falling and closed the window from the outside. He then flew quite a bit of distance towards the meadows, where he would be able to walk through them freely.

Tails landed on a long, stretching path towards the city far over the horizon. He walked, unsure of where he was going, head bent down, deep in thought. _It makes me more aggressive... It gives me strength to match Knuckles'... Speed to match Sonic's... What is it doing to me?_ Tails looked up at a nearby by hill and decided to lie on top of it to think for a while. From his perspective, it had a nice tuft of grass that could act well as a cushion. He began to walk towards it, seeing himself lying on top.

At that moment, the world spun around him in a blizzard of colours. Tails was frozen in mid-stride, nothing being able to move. Facial expressions, eyes, tails, feet, ears – none of them were moving. It was as if they were rejecting all commands, or had siezed up. Everything spun around him for no more than a second. When it all stopped, Tails finished his stride before taking in a big gasp of air, wondering what had just happened. Then he found himself standing on top of the hill he had visualised just moments ago. _Woah... how'd I do that?! I just... teleported... But how?_ Tails looked around, hoping no one had seen. _Maybe it's... _Tails gripped his stomach, suddenly frightened, as if the monster would leap out from inside of him and attack him. But he still wasn't sure just where this creature had gone. Whether it was really inside of him, roaming freely in the forests, or terrorising others. And if it had used him as a vessel, he doubted it could teleport him without a chaos emerald. Then it struck him. _What if, somehow, it's linked to the chaos emeralds? If it is, then I've just done chaos control. But... will I be able to handle it?_ Tails knew that, during a test he once took, he couldn't control the power of the chaos emeralds very well on his own, so he usually left it to Sonic or the X-Tornado to use them. _Well what happened last time didn't happen now... _Tails thouht as he remembered what had happened.

* * *

The recent events of Eggman's supermachine E-99 that had used all seven emeralds to almost defeat Sonic had left its marks. A few damages still remained in the city from the Chaos Control that struck, as well as from the robot itself. Tails and Chuck were working in the underground hangar, repairing the X-Tornado and modifying the engines so they could use two chaos emeralds at once without repercussions.  
'Okay Tails, try it now!' called Chuck's voice.  
'Okay Chuck!' Tails called back. He made sure Chuck was well out of the way before switching on the engines. The engines flared into life at the switch of a button and the deafening roar echoed around the hangar. Tails let the engines run for a few seconds to make sure all the lights were green. He didn't want to test them out fully just yet since the wings still needed some repairs and him and Chuck wanted to finish the engines first before repairing the damaged wings.  
'Okay Tails, I think we'll take a break here,' Chuck called out as Tails clambered back down to the ground.  
'Okay Chuck. I'm just gonna pack up the tools, then I'll come up.' Chuck exited through the elevator as Tails set about to collecting the tools. As he did so, the events of the epic battle replayed in his head. It had been a few days and Eggman was nowhere to be seen, which was quite odd since he would normally retaliate as fast as he could, sometimes within just twenty-four hours. But with the loss of his base, no one thought he would show up for a month at the least.

They had already managed to acquire two of the chaos emeralds during this time. Tails and Chuck had taken the opportunity to use them to test the new engines that they had planned just before the battle with E-99. _Sonic going super... that was spectacular! I wish I had a camera at the time so I could of taken some pictures! I've never seen anything like it! _Tails packed the tools into the toolbox before closing the lid and replacing it in its shelf. As he walked towards the elevator, something glinted in the corner of his eye. He looked around to see what it was, to realise it was the yellow chaos emerald next to the white one in the side of the X-Tornado, where they were stored in small square shelves along the side, both glinting from the light above reflecting from them. The colour reminded him yet again of the gold colour that Sonic blazed in as he fought the robot that had almost defeated him, had Chris not broken free from Eggman's hands and ripped the chaos emeralds out of the E-99. _I wonder if you can teleport using just one. I mean, that's what chaos control is meant to do, right? And it's generated by the chaos emeralds..._ _Maybe it can do short-range? _Tails could see no harm in trying out this theory and walked over to the emeralds. He picked up the yellow one, seeing as it was the closest to him. He twirled it in his hands, examining the glistening jewel, pondering on how it would work. _Hmm..._ Thinking up of the most logical theory, he held the emerald firmly in his hand. He concentrated on a particular spot, which was outside the front door. _Alright.. _'Chaos control,' Tails muttered. As soon as the words left his lips, the hangar spun around him in a blur of colours moving so fast they blended into each other. These were shortly replaced by the many other, brighter colours of the outside of the house and abruptly stopped. It all happened so fast it took Tails a second or two to realise what had actually happened. He looked around to find himself standing infront of the doorway of the Thorndike mansion. The colours slowed down quickly and stopped to reveal the green lawn of the front garden, as well as the large wooden door that lead inside the great mansion. _Hey, it worked! I should go tell Sonic, it would probably –_ Tails never finished this thought off though. His whole body began to shake violently as he dropped the chaos emerald to the floor, shortly followed by his knees. His body began to weaken at an incredible speed. The tails that normally swished around in an up-down motion fell to the ground lifelessly. He slumped over on to his side and lay there, violently shaking, unable to make a sound. A bystander would think he was having a seizure if they couldn't see his eyes which stayed staring forwards, fixated in position. He was, barely, able to think. _What's going on? What's happening?! HELP! _The poor fox knew it was useless, but he tried calling for help in his head anyway.

Tails wasn't able to control the chaos emerald's energy, resulting in major consequences. The energy from the chaos emerald was meant to use its own energy. However, since Tails had no control over this, it mixed with his energy, resulting in his body trying to discard this excess energy in the quickest way possible. And what was quicker than short, sharp movements continuously over a long period of time? However, because of these violent movements, it also drained his own energy, which was in much shorter supply than the chaos energy. He would run out of his own energy faster than the chaos energy would disperse, which would continue to try to escape afterwards. Since, however, it is unable to be replaced as a replica of the poor fox's own, it would remain inside of him, unable to escape. The irony was is that he had a machine that could disperse this energy easily, or would blow up otherwise. It was anyone's guess as to what would happen if his energy continued to deplete in an effort to rid Tails of the chaos energy.

Had there not been a security camera overlooking the door and a watchful Mr. Tanaka, Tails probably wouldn't be alive. When Mr. Tanaka had quickly alerted everyone of the event, Sonic was the first on the scene. Sonic didn't know what was going on, but after Chuck had told him that Tails was in the hangar moments ago and now lay on the floor shaking madly with the chaos emerald next to him, Sonic guessed that the fox had tried to use chaos control with the emerald. But he worked on a guess by using the chaos emerald to help the fox, which had miraculously worked. Unfortunately, Tails was out of action for a whole week because of it.

* * *

Tails snapped back to reality. _Well, that's not happening this time. So it can't be chaos control... so what is it? Is it really teleporting?_ _Or maybe the creature is controlling it for me. Argh, I don't know! _Tails became confused at his own conclusions, unable to decide what was the truth, or decide on the most sensible conclusion at all. He scrunched his face up in confusion. He didn't know what was the truth and what was his imagination anymore.

And then something clicked. _What if I can control it? If last night happened because of that thing, then I'll be able to use it to defeat Eggman! But how do I control it?_ Tails thought this over. _Well I imagined myself ontop of this hill when I teleported, so..._ Tails looked around to make sure no one was watching before concentrating his thoughts on the base of the hill he was stood on. He concentrated hard, focusing on imagining himself standing there. Reacting to this, the same thing instantly happened. The colours of the surrounding area swirled around him at breakneck speed, stopping him from being able to move so much as a nanometre. In a very short space of time, the colours stopped whirling around him like a tornado and Tails stood at the bottom of the hill he was stood on top of moments ago. _Alright!_ Tails thought to himself in joy as he smiled at his success. He then tried to remember other unusual things that had happened to him recently. _When me and Sonic were going to the city, I was going __much faster than I used to be able to... My leg and concussion healed too fast to be natural... I defeated Eggman's robot with ease... Maybe this thing isn't so bad after all!_ Tails was delighted that he had reached to the conclusion that the creature was infact helping him, not trying to harm him. _But when it tortured me, what about that? Maybe it's a side effect? Something like this is bound to do that. _Tails made his mind up and thought it a gift that had been given to him rather than a curse. He thought of his room back home, and instantly disappeared from the meadows.

* * *

An immense pyramid stood over the hedgehog, surrounded by pillars made out of compacted sand. A few of these pillars had fallen over and those that remained standing were heavily eroded by the countless years of erosion. Shadow didn't bother with the scenery. He was determined to get to the bottom of the mystery of this meteor. He walked through the ancient archway that lead into the vast pyramid and followed the hallway. He had no idea where he was going, or what he was looking for, so he was just going to find the heart of the pyramid, which was most likely where the facts lay. He took a nearby burning torch that always seemed to be coincidentially there and never went out unless there was a reason for it. The hallway infront of him only went in one direction, so he doubted it would be hard to find the central room.

After continuously turning left and right and climbing numerous flights of stairs, Shadow reached what he was looking for. A large room that was missing its roof lead to a dead end. A single podium lay in the centre with what looked like enscriptions around its sides. On the wall opposite of Shadow lay what Robotnik had described. The whole wall was etched with ancient, yet somewhat untouched, text, as well as the diagrams that were also explained. The one that caught Shadow's eye was a large diagram that was clearly a meteor. _I suppose that this is what I'm looking for. But how to decipher it?_ Shadow walked towards the long encriptions that seemed to make no sense from far away.

When he was close enough to read the text, he took in a gasp and his eyes widened. _I – I can read it as if it were plain English! But – how?! _He was immensely confused. The text couldn't have been simpler if it was written in English. The cryptic inscriptions that made no sense to even the most renowned experts on Mobius were able to be fluently read by the confused hedgehog. _Perhaps the doctor managed to decipher them and put it in my genetic coding?_ Shadow quickly pulled himself together, remembering the task at hand. He began to read the information inscribed on the ancient walls of the catacomb, taking in everything it mentioned.

* * *

Tails rematerialised in the center of his room. He staggered as he lost his balance, but managed to stay upright. _Looks like I can go anywhere I want to with this._ Tails got lost in his own thoughts of the places he had always wanted to go to, but never got round to it. He wondered what Sonic's expression would be after he found out that his little brother had been touring around the globe without him knowing. _Wait... what will Sonic say if he found out what I can do? Should I tell him? _Tails sat down on his bed and rested his head in his hands to think._ What will he think? He might not see it the way I do, which would mean he would get worried and try to find a way in stopping it. I don't want him to be so worried about me... So maybe I shouldn't tell him._

Just then, Sonic walked into the room, which brought Tails out of his trance. Tails looked up as the hedgehog sat next to him.  
'Are you okay Tails?' Sonic asked. The fact that Tails, as far as Sonic was concerned, had been locked up in his room all day made Sonic think that Tails had become depressed over last night's uncharacteristic outburst.  
'Yeah, I'm fine,' Tails responded as he looked into Sonic's eyes to prove he wasn't lying.  
'Are you sure?' Tails nodded. Sonic thought for a moment. He wasn't sure of what to do next. Eventually giving up, he nodded and left the room without another word. Tails followed, wanting to go to the workshop and work on with some adjustments to the X-Tornado.

* * *

How was that possible?

Eggman was reliving last night's events, wondering how it was possible for Tails to become so strong. He continued edit an old blueprint on a drawing board in his new base, a large, pointed red battleship, with stabiliser wings pointing downwards at the rear and the ship's bridge raised high over the top. It was lined with various defensive weapons such as turrets and hidden rocket launchers specifically designed to target high speed objects, namely Sonic and the X-Tornado. He had made the texture of the ship's exterior in a unique way that would reflect radio waves (used for aircraft scanners) into several different directions. This idea he had acquired back on Earth from the military's B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber, a high-tech bomber that was virtually undetectable and had once caught Eggman off guard. The doctor had learned quite a few tricks from Earth's military tactics, as well as other things that they didn't use. Eggman was yet to make something to cloak the ship, like a light-bending machine or something. He was being more precaucious now due to the recent raid on his probably still smouldering previous base and had installed long-range scanners, the radius of which was three miles, which would at least allow him to prepare fast enough if either of Sonic or the X-Tornado did approach.

The battleship, which Eggman had named as the Egg-Hawk, was currently stationed over Daetron's Canyon. The source of the canyon's name was unknown, but it was presumed to have been named by someone called Daetron as this seemed the only answer anyone could think of. The canyon was surrounded by small mountains, flooded with trees and plants. A small group of flickies flew low over the canopy of the dense trees. The sun shone brightly over the clouding sky. Eggman, however, wasn't concentrating on the scenery and was instead reverting to an old blueprint he had created years ago. The machine itself had become very successful against Sonic, but was affected by its likeness to the hedgehog and had left itself to die after saving Sonic at the last second. The design flaw, to this day, haunted Eggman. He had never got round to fixing it because shortly after this event, he had started concentrating on other methods. _This time, without the design flaw and a chaos emerald, it will be unstoppable!_ Eggman smiled to himself as he changed the blueprints so that it had a slot to hold a chaos emerald. _I'll concentrate on getting that fox later, I don't think it would be wise to do so just yet._ He added to himself as the scene of Tails moving at lightning speed to dodge the Egg-Scorpion's onslaught flashed in his mind.

'Doctor, we've taken apart the Egg-Scorpion' Decoe called out from the door. Eggman made no response as he was too busy on the plans and hadn't registered what had just been said. Decoe and Bocoe were still annoyed about the Eggman's recent plans, but were at least pleased to know he wouldn't be trying it again any time soon. His excuse was it was too much hassle for something so insignificant. Not being able to look them in the eye when he had said it made them suspicious and weary of his next dastardley deed though. What they had picked up about it was that there was no kidnapping involved and was focused purely on defeating Sonic.

As Decoe left the room to find something to pass the time, Bokkun sailed in.  
'You called for me Doctor?' Eggman looked around to see the robot impatiently floating, excited that he finally had a mission after such a long wait.  
'I need you to take this message to Sonic for me.' Eggman waved an envelope, which dissapointed the robot because he preffered the exploding television screens. However, it was a mission at last and he took the envelope.  
'Can I put a bomb in it Doctor?' Bokkun asked as Eggman turned round, destined to make something explode. Eggman merely waved a hand which said 'I couldn't care less if I tried' and continued to draw.  
'Yippee!' Bokkun shouted, punching the air in joy and slipping a small explosive in the envelope before putting it in his pouch and sailing off to find Sonic.

* * *

Time ticked away and it reached eight o'clock in the evening. While Tails worked on the X-Tornado, Sonic had gone out for a long jog, saying he didn't know when he would be back. Before Tails could ask him where he had gone, Sonic was already running towards the meadows.  
'Done...' Tails said after hours of adjusting the wings, the engines, the weapons system and everything else that had something to do with the X-Tornado. _I'll take it to the workshop at the University tomorrow and see what I can do with the engines._ Tails crawled out of the bottom of the X-Tornado and put away the many tools he had used.

After finally packing everything, Tails walked upstairs to make himself dinner. He wasn't that much of a chef, so he took out a pre-prepared meal (battered fish and chips) that just needed to be heated in the microwave. He took off the cling film that was wrapped around the meal and plate and set the microwave to reheat. He left it to it while he took out a knife and fork from the drawers.  
'I'm back!' A voice called out from behind him. The fact it said 'I'm back!' made Tails think it was Sonic, but the voice was much too high to be his. Tails looked around to find the source. No one was there. _Huh? _Tails slowly turned back to the microwave, listening out for any kind of movement. The microwave tinged to say that it had just finished its job and Tails opened the door. _I'll leave it to cool for a few seconds._

'Tails! Up here!' Tails looked up to find Bokkun hovering over his head. 'I've got a message from Eggman for Sonic. Where is he?' Bokkun said in his high pitched voice as he took out the envelope. Tails immediately jumped and ran over behind the sofa, afraid that the envelope was going to blow up on touch. He was used to television screens rather than a note, but you couldn't be too cautious with Bokkun. 'Hey! Get back here! It won't blow up when you touch it or open it, I promise!' _It'll blow up after you read it though_ Bokkun thought to himself.

Tails cautiously climbed out from behind the sofa and cautiously approached the hovering robot holding out the note. 'Remember to tell Sonic what it says' Bokkun said as Tails took the note and opened it. It read:

_Sonic. Meet me at Daetron's Canyon at midnight, at Crateméro's Gorge. Bring your chaos emeralds. Winner takes all._

_Eggman._

_P.S. Come alone or not at all._

Tails finished reading what had to be the shortest message he had ever seen. _Crateméro's Gorge? Why there?_ Tails knew it was to work at Eggman's advantage though, otherwise Eggman would just attack some nearby town to draw Sonic out. _It's a gorge, so there'll be plenty of water. _If it was a specified place, then you can bet anything that it was for Eggman's advantage, and you'll most likely win. Nonetheless, Tails needed to tell Sonic. He looked up, to find Bokkun rushing out of the door. Tails anticipated what was going to happen and rushed over to the nearest window to throw the envelope outside. It flew just three feet before setting off its small explosion and being blasted into dust and ashes. Tails heard a faint 'aww!' which could only mean Bokkun was dissapointed the explosive didn't do what it was meant to. _Crateméro's Gorge... midnight... come alone... bring chaos emeralds... winner takes all... damn! I won't be able to help him, or Eggman won't accept the challenge, and I bet he'll have a scanner or... something._

'Tails?' Tails looked around to find Sonic standing at the door. 'Was that Bokkun?'  
'Yeah. He gave me a message for you, but it blew up. It said... come to Crateméro's Gorge at Daetron's Canyon at midnight. Bring all your chaos emeralds, winner takes all. And come alone.' Tails recited as he quickly remembered what the message had said, before it was reduced to a pile of ashes that were now being carried away by the calm spring wind. Sonic sighed._ I take it someone wants pay back. _'Was that all it said Tails?' Sonic asked, which Tails answered by nodding. Sonic thought over the unexpected challenge. _Great. A gorge. That means water._


	8. Winner takes all

Uploaded this earlier than planned due to I will be away this weekend for cadets for Company Weekend until Sunday and I just KNOW I'm going to forget to add this somehow.

Disclaimer: It's the same as the other seven. I don't own Sonic or related characters, or Amadeus or Rosemary Prower. They are all owned by their respective owners.

So Eggman has challenged Sonic in a one-on-one. What will happen?

Nearly didn't finish this chapter in time. Wasn't paying it much attention because I decided to start playing Xbox Live again so I didn't finish it at my normal deadline. Luckily, I did though and still with just under 2 weeks left until I need to finish the next chapter. Yay!

Wow, that's all I can come up with... I'm running out of things to say up here DX Luckily the story compensates.

While reading chapter 4 for the hell of it (and to find something out which later turned out that it wasn't specified in the first place, if that makes sense. It does to me) I found that I had accidentaly put in a 2 in the middle of 'continued' at one point. Wish people would tell me these things DX

And remember: RRE – Read, Review, Enjoy! If you want. You don't have to. But if you weren't here to read, then I don't know why you are here, likewise enjoy this since you wouldn't be reading chapter 8 if you hadn't read the other 7. :S

* * *

Chapter 8: Winner takes all

_Is there anything I can do to help?_ Tails thought over the recent invitation to Sonic. _He'll need all the help he can get. No doubt Eggman has a few nasty tricks up his sleeve. But how can I help?_ It was half past eleven and it was drawing close towards midnight at a very fast speed. _Maybe I could make a fake emerald? But he might notice... He didn't last time though. _Tails looked at the two emeralds they possessed that lay on the table infront of him in the living room – the blue and green ones. _He won't keep to the end of his bargain, so maybe we should do something to make sure he doesn't get them, even if he wins... Sonic will need something tough I guess... Wait a minute - that's it! _Tails leaped up and ran outside to talk to Sonic.

Sonic, meanwhile, sat on top of the roof, staring at the night sky. _His retaliation is a bit fast... what's he going to do this time? Well it can't be something hard if it's near water.  
_'Sonic!' Came Tails' voice as the fox himself floated up over the side of the roof.  
'What is it bud?' Sonic replied, sitting up as the eager fox landed next to him.  
'Sonic, I've got a plan!' Sonic was going to object, but thought otherwise as Tails' plans usually worked very well.  
'Alright, let's hear it.' Tails began to explain the plan to Sonic. A short, brief one, but it would be highly effective if it worked. When Tails finished, Sonic thought it over. 'Okay then,' Sonic said after a few moments. 'But you be careful. I'll see you there, I'm going there now.' Tails nodded and went back inside and ran into the hangar. Sonic stood up, knowing it would shortly be time to head towards the gorge. He double checked the shoes that Chris had designed for him to grip onto slippery surfaces were secured. They wouldn't help if he fell in, but they would atleast help him not to do so in the first place.

Tails ran through the house, grabbing one of the chaos emeralds and headed down into the hangar. _I just hope it's still in good condition_ he thought to himself as he scrambled into the X-Tornado. He fired up the engines, pressed a button to open the hangar and let the fake palm trees split apart as he clipped himself in the safety harness. Tails then grabbed the twin joysticks and thrusted them forwards, blasting the X-Tornado across the runway.

Sonic heard the faint rawr of the engines of the X-Tornado, shortly followed by the fighter taking off from the runway and wheeling round to go in the opposite direction. As it flew by Sonic, water vapour condensed at the front and rear, followed by a sonic boom, as the X-Tornado broke the sound barrier. As it flew off into the distance, Sonic jumped down infront of the house and went inside to collect the remaining emerald. He then walked outside and turned in the opposite direction to the X-Tornado before breaking the sound barrier himself.

* * *

Crateméro's Gorge was a rather small one set a few miles from the mouth of Daetron's Canyon. This particular section of the canyon was extremely thin, comparing to the fact that some parts reached over a mile in length. This one was a mere fifty metres. The area at the top was clear of trees for about a hundred metres from the lip of the canyon. Large and small rocks were placed around the gorge as the white waters flowed at a jogging pace down stream. Every now and then, there would be a waterfall. Below it, where the rocks had eroded much more than those around it, was a large dip making the bottom of a waterfall much deeper than the rest of the gorge. Crateméro's Gorge was favourited by gorge scramblers since it posed little threat and many different paths, giving the person many different routes to take and different points of view of the gorge, but a small slip would have you being dragged down the river until you caught on to something, or fell down the waterfalls, which wasn't a pleasant experience. The canyon rose up high over the gorge, the distance being one hundred feet at the gorge's highest point. Crateméro's Gorge was two hundred feet below the edge of the canyon. The moon shone brightly over head, Eggman's half clearly visible, with just a single cloud floating below it. The stars twinkled in the night sky like diamonds.

Eggman hovered over a ten foot water fall. The bottom was splattered with rocks and the sides of the gorge with sharp, jagged edges. Eggman had picked this spot specifically for the advantages it left him. He waited patiently as his latest creation hid away out of sight behind the waterfall. Eggman looked at the time displayed on a screen in the eggpod. One minute to midnight. _Sonic should be showing right about... now_. As soon as he thought this, a blue streak came running across the edge of the canyon, scanning the gorge for any sign of Eggman. Sonic spotted him sticking out like a sore thumb due to the light coming from the computers on the Eggpod. Sonic picked a rock and jumped down onto it, landing just behind the doctor as the clock ticked midnight.

'Perfect timing Sonic,' Eggman joked as he turned to face the hedgehog. 'Did you bring all of your emeralds?' he added. Sonic silently put a hand behind his back. When he returned it infront of him, the blue chaos emerald glimmered in the moonlight, as well as its own glow. 'Is that all?' Eggman asked, which was answered by a silent nod. Eggman then held out his hand. Before he could speak, Sonic said 'No way Eggman!' He stowed the emerald back above his tail. 'The only way you're taking it is if you actually defeat me. For once.' Sonic glared at Eggman, who glared back. A few moments of awkward silence passed over as Eggman thought things over. _He won't hand it over and I don't have anything to threaten him with this time...  
_'So what toy's am I going to break this time Eggman?' Sonic finally spoke, taunting the doctor with a grin.  
'Oh ho hoo!' Eggman chuckled as he snapped out of his thoughts. 'You won't be breaking anything of mine this time you infernal hedgehog... that emerald is as good as mine!' At this, Eggman pressed a button on the console.

It sounded as though the waterfall's rumbling intensified as something was clearly about to rise over the top of it. Sonic waited for his new opponent to emerge as Eggman flew upwards to avoid the fight, having conceded in Sonic's refusal to hand over the emerald. _A slight drawback, but that emerald will be mine whether he likes it or not!_ Eggman thought to himself as he flew upwards and over the canyon.

Below him, Sonic stood on the slippery rock as the water rushed over the sides of his shoes. An object began to emerge from the rim of the waterfall. The Moonlight was obscured by an overhanging tree, making the object hard to see. Sonic squinted his eyes to see if he could make it out. Two small sources of light came over the top, which Sonic supposed were its thrusters on the bottom of it. The object moved closer to him, into the white light of the moon. Sonic raise an eyebrow. It was a metallic version of himself. A new Mecha Sonic. It looked exactly like the original version he had faught a few years back.  
'You haven't changed much,' Sonic taunted, but the robot merely looked back at him with a lifeless stare.

Its left arm suddenly changed into a large, bulky laser cannon and aimed at Sonic, who's eyes widened before the cannon fired. He quickly jumped to one side and onto another rock as the previous one was blasted apart. _Great, now he's got weapons too! _Mecha Sonic took aim again while the real Sonic prepared to dodge again. _Just stick to the plan. _Sonic continued to dodge the oncoming blasts as large pieces of rock were blasted apart, the sides of the gorge from misfires tumbling down the river and water being hurled into the air. Sonic made a sudden change in tactics. When he got close enough to take his opponent off guard, he curled up for a spin dash towards his mechanical counterpart. The sudden change did what he had hoped and struck Mecha Sonic square on, sending him off the side of the waterfall. Sonic stood on the edge as Mecha Sonic fell to the jagged rocks below. Suddenly, its engines kicked back in, stopping it from being split apart by the rocks, just half a metre below it. It looked up at Sonic, deciding on the next course of action as it flew back up the side of the waterfall, level with Sonic.

But without warning, Sonic turned and ran up the side of the gorge, towards the top of the canyon. Eggman thought that Sonic would try to attack him and quickly maneuvered out of range. Instead, Sonic landed ontop of the canyon as Mecha Sonic blasted up after him. Sonic felt much safer up here since there was no water nearby. As it came over the edge, Mecha started firing at Sonic at a much more rapid frequency. Sonic quick stepped and jumped out of the way of the hellfire as Mecha Sonic began using the chaos emerald for a much more powerful impact. A glow came from the centre of the robot as the emerald was activated. _I guess... that's where... Eggman's emerald is. _Sonic tried to find a gap in the onslaught of blasts, but it was impossible. It seemed to know exactly what he was about to do before he did it. As soon as he moved, another shot would be fired on his landing spot, making him have to curl up into a ball and dodge the debris. After a whole minute of the repititive action of shoot, dodge, shoot and dodge again, Sonic began to make out a pattern. All of the blasts holes were in a line, which were all where he was landing. _I wonder... _Sonic tried doing a backflip to go backwards. Sure enough, Mecha Sonic fired on where the hedgehog was originally supposed to land.

In truth, it wasn't guess work. Infact, Mecha Sonic had calculated a complex sequence that allowed it to know Sonic's every moves using previous data. The sudden change in direction threw it off immediately, leaving it now clueless as to Sonic's next move. Now, it would be like swatting a fly – its path being completely unpredictable. Which was what Sonic's was right now. He went left right, up, forwards and backwards to dodge the now confused robot. He jumped onto the other side of the narrow canyon and ran along the side. The blasts shattered rock into every direction that it could, but all of the debris eventually falling into the gorge below. The splashes of rock on water and the crashed of rock on rock sounded throughout the area. Sonic jumped back to Mecha's side and ran straight towards it, quick stepping and jumping to avoid the blasts.

As Sonic approached nearer, Mecha decided it was time for a new weapon to be used. The cannon closed up and slinked into the arm to be replace by a glowing laser sword. The glowing from it's chest intensified as the beam grew suddenly brighter. It also got hotter as heatwaves started to be emitted from it. Mecha Sonic aligned itself with Sonic's path, who stopped dead in his tracks. _Okay, new plan._ Sonic tried to look for some sort of weakspot. As far as he could tell though, there wasn't any. _I doubt I'll be able to do the same as last time I faught it..._ Sonic tried to think of what to do next to stall the robot until Tails arrived. He decided that running circles around it and continuing to dodge attacks would be the best answer. It was best to keep the chaos emerald stored for now.

Sonic ran at the robot and began to run circles around it. A cloud of dust began to form around Mecha Sonic as Sonic formed a whirlwind around it. Sonic was ready for it if it were to lunge forward to try to let him run into its blade. But instead, it flew upwards, out of reach from Sonic. Sonic made a sudden stop and looked up at the robot.  
'Hey, get down here and fight me! Or are you a coward?' The robot clearly had no feelings, unlike its previous model, as it did not react to the comment. Instead, it just hovered overhead, looking down at its foe.

Overhead, without warning, a portal with various colours swirling inside of it opened up above Mecha Sonic. It looked up, wondering what was going on. The real Sonic recognised it immediately and smiled. As he did so, a large, coned shaped, orange-yellow object came out of it. This was shortly followed by two large spikes, one below and one above. The one on top had a runway built on top of it with trees lining the sides. Two stabilisers on the bottom began to come through, shortly followed by a hangar at the other end of the runway. What looked like an extremely large engine now came in to view. On top of it was the ship's bridge and on the bottom was two more stabilisers. The rest of the engines came into view, cone shaped with the glow of the flare of the engines around the sides of them. What was new was that this time, there were four large, domed turrets, two on either side of the runway.

The Blue Typhoon sailed high above the Gorge. Mecha Sonic immediately recognised it as a threat and began to scan for a weak point. Meanwhile, Sonic jumped up ontop of the robot and jumped again with as much force as he could to try to land on the ship's runway. He missed, not even reaching level with the bottom. Having nothing to grab onto, he began to fall back down to the ground with nothing to stop him. As he fell, a second plan to get on top came to mind and he pulled out the emerald. He concentrated on the top of the Typhoon as the ground came rushing to meet him. _Chaos Control!_ He wasn't sure if it would work, it was usually left to Shadow to use the emeralds for teleporting.

Mecha Sonic was pushed down as Sonic landed on top of it and jumped back off. It followed the hedgehog's path and, with incredible and inhuman speed, it calculated the now falling hedgehog's path, calculated exactly where he would land and also at what point he should fire for maximum effect. The beam sword quickly switched back to the cannon and took aim. Sonic's path was plotted on its peripheral vision. A red X was marked on one point of the path. This indicated when it should fire on Sonic's landing spot when Sonic reached the X. Sonic came tumbling down the path's line. Had it had thoughts, they would be _perfect!_ Instead, it just watched the poor pygmy as he plummeted towards solid ground. Sonic passed the mark and a single, powerful shot was fired. The blue laser soared through the air.

_Chaos Control!_ Sonic thought to himself as he reached fifty feet from the ground, hoping it would do something. It did. Although the outcome wasn't what he wanted, it did save him. The emerald glowed a bright blue, as did Sonic. He didn't go anywhere. Literally. He stayed floating in midair for a few seconds before the effect quickly wore off. That time was all he needed though. He rectified his position so his feet were below him as he began to fall again. After just twenty more feet of falling, an immense explosion went off below. The laser struck with immense force, sending Sonic rocketing back upwards much faster than he fell. He went up two hundred feet into the air, as a small mushroom cloud formed below him. He went soaring past the side of the Blue Typhoon and directed himself to land directly on top.

'Alright, Sonic!' Tails shouted from the bridge in excitement. He knew the hedgehog wouldn't be able to hear him, but he did it out of habit. Mecha Sonic, meanwhile, flew up, level with the bridge. It had decided that the engines were too large to be destroyed in one shot, so by the time it would have fired the second shot, the Typhoon's laser shields would be activated. Instead, it had decided that the pilot would be the weakest target, who was located in the bridge. Mecha Sonic raised its cannoned arm and aimed at the tower, quickly calculating the most effective point.

Tails was unable to notice this as Mecha Sonic was obscured by the ship's metallic frame. Luckily for him, the new turrets he had installed were extremely intelligent and could tell the difference between friends and foes without having to search through a database of sorts first. All four of the large domes swivelled round to face the robot and primed. A message on Tails' screen told him that they had found a hostile target and awaited his say-so to fire. Before Tails could press anything, let alone move, Sonic was already running off the side of the runway towards the floating robot. He curled up into a spin dash. Now that he had more momentum due to more running space, he was now able to get some power behind the attack. As the laser cannon charged up, Sonic soared towards Mecha in a spindash. The robot didn't see this coming as it was still fixated on the Bridge. Sonic slammed into the side with incredible force, leaving a large dent in the centre of his mechanical look-alike. Mecha was sent flying backwards and plummeted the two hundred feet, smashing head first into the ground. Sonic wheeled round and landed on the top of the Typhoon.

'Heh heh heh' came a low voice. Sonic looked around for the source to find Eggman floating above.  
'Hey! Forgot you were here Egghead! You haven't said anything for that whole fight,' Sonic called back. 'Hope I didn't break your toy too much or I won't have anything to play with,' he added.  
'I wouldn't be so sure about that Sonic. You see, back on Earth I learned a thing or two. I -'  
'Wow, Eggman learning. That's a first.' Sonic quickly butted in to wind up Eggman as much as he could. 'You hearing this Tails? Eggman learned! He actually learned for once!' Sonic shouted over his shoulder to Tails. There was no reply as the fox was squirming with uncontrollable laughter, clutching his stomach as if his splene would explode if he let go. Sonic took that as a yes and let Eggman continue his monologue.  
'As I was saying,' Eggman said through gritted teeth, 'I learned a thing or two from Earth. I discovered an alloy that, when heated to the right temperature, it literally bends itself back into its original shape. This new Mecha Sonic is made out of that alloy, so I wouldn't be so sure that that dent did as much damage as you think it did. Watch.' Sonic bent over the side of the jagged edges of the ship to find Mecha Sonic climbing back to its feet and the many dents that both impacts had made were quickly expanding back into their original shape. When they had finished this surprisingly fast reaction, it seemed as though it had never been damaged at all.

'Hey Eggman!' Tails called out unexpectedly, still giving off a short giggle every now and then. Eggman looked at the Bridge of the Typhoon to listen. 'Where's the welcoming party? If you told Sonic to come alone, then why don't you have something else for us?' Eggman thought this over for a moment. Yes, he hadn't come up with something to welcome uninvited guests since he was too busy on Mecha's modifications. His original plan was to flee and destroy the gorge with Sonic in it. Since this wasn't the case, he was left unable to prevent the fox from doing anything. Eggman said nothing to the bewildered fox and returned to watching the fight as Mecha Sonic floated back upwards, level with the ship yet again. Tails decided that now would be a good time to fire the large turrets on Mecha. He flipped the cover of the button on the controls and pressed it.

As this happened, Mecha Sonic was met by a hailstorm of laser fire from the turrets. Blue streaks soared towards their target in a blur. Within seconds, Mecha Sonic was lost in the blizzard. No one could make out what was going on inside. Eggman, fearing the turrets would soon turn on him, slowly edged away as Sonic and Tails continued to watch the hellfire.

When the blaze ceased, there was hardly anything left of the robot. Both arms were missing, one side of its head had been torn off and a missing leg. The metal bent itself back into place as the robot lost power and plummeted for the second time within just five minutes. Eggman quickly flew away while he had the chance. Then he remembered. _The emerald!_ He turned round to find Sonic already jumping down and spindashing to cushion the fall and head towards the remnants. Eggman had no backup plan to retrieve the emerald. In any case, either Sonic or Tails would hit him hard if he dared to try, since it was him who had said 'winner takes all'. He especially feared the Tails part, having just witnessed his new machine mercilessly ripped apart, aswell as the encounter the previous night. Without a word, thinking that the slightest sound would attract the turrets, he silently sailed off towards his base and away from the blast zone. He smiled as he remembered his last resort.

Sonic walked up next to the wreck of the obliterated mech and opened up the intact chest to reveal the white emerald, glowing gently. The light shone on Sonic's face as he picked it up. He then took out the other emerald so that they could come together without making an explosion. Then something caught his attention. _What's that sound?_ Sonic listened closely. As he listened, the beeping sound began to grow louder. Sonic immediately recognised it as one of Eggman's if-all-else-fails tricks and ran from the ticking bomb. Sonic jumped as hard and fast as he could to the ship. He tucked into a spindash and tried to reach as close to the ship as he could. Tails, after catching the radio signals of the bomb on the monitors, quickly engaged the laser shields as Sonic got within them.

Just as Sonic did so, the bomb went off. For a small robot, the explosion was immense. It covered Sonic's tracks faster than Sonic had himself. The supernova explosion quickly engulfed the Typhoon, blinding it in a white and blue aurora. Eggman watched with his tinted goggles in the distance, well clear of the impended final obliteration of the hedgehog and the fox. Anyone who was watching would be blinded if they didn't have protection. Anything that the explosion touched was either obliterated or incinerated. Even rock itself was liquidised as the recreation of a miniature nuclear bomb carried on. The Typhoon and its occupants were unable to be seen as the explosion widened, engulfing the gorge. Trees as far as five hundred metres away burst into flames as a forest fire began to start. _Maybe I overdid it a little too much... Well, atleast they're out of my way now._ Eggman thought with slight concern. It troubled him that such an easy method was used to finally defeat his nemesis. _Maybe I am going too far... not thinking straight. Oh well, I guess it's time to build Eggmanland!_ Eggman thought to himself with a smile as the domed glow continued to widen. _I'll return later when everything is safe to collect the emeralds. _Eggman deployed the small dragonfly-like robot to keep an eye on the wreckage in the mean time.

* * *

Wooh! My longest fight scene yet XD I'm not too good at them, so I apologise if there isn't enough detail, but I put in as much as I could. I visualise them with much too detail that I simply can't put into words XD I'm still learning.


	9. Explanation

If you really thought I was actually going to kill them off, then you haven't been paying much attention! XD Anyway, find out what's going to happen if you continue to read on and not read my babbling that will someday have me ruin the story for you. I've almost done it three times already to a friend of mine who I'm trying to convince to read the whole story instead of just the first chapter.

Heh heh... Eggman learned XD favourite phrase much? And I finally gave up and turned the spell checker on so I could find the grammar mistakes instead of finding them weeks after adding the story. I'm not going to have another 'contin2ued' situation.

And still, no one has figured out the cryptic clues. Okay, I haven't actually hinted that there are any, but still... Someone must have noticed by now? Mind, it's pretty well hidden merely because of one little thing, but if you were to take it away then you would be one step closer. Now, like Tails, I babble on about things that seem to make no sense to the people I'm talking to and all I get in response is a glum look of plain confusion, but unlike Tails, I know when to shut up before I go on to reveal an important piece of information, so I believe that now is the time to shut my mouth.

Oh, and I won't be adding a new chapter every Sunday as of now since I keep getting side-tracked (i.e. School, Xbox Live or practising guitar a lot more than usual)

Anyway, read, review, enjoy. And I don't own Sonic, Tails, related characters, or Amadeus and Rosemary Prower. They are all copyright of their respective owners. Is it safe to put this in one chapter and leave it at that? Because I really can't be bothered writing it out 7,000 odd times. Well, there isn't going to be 7,000 odd chapters obviously, but nonetheless. I can't be bothered writing it so many times :(

* * *

Chapter 9: Explanations

The once peaceful landscape lay in ruins. Crateméro's Gorge had caved in and a dam was quickly being built up by water that hadn't evaporated from the intense heat. A few fires burned in the distance as trees continued to catch fire from stray embers. Forest creatures such as Flickies fled their homes from the slow moving blaze. Where a battle had commenced now lay an enormous crater. The Blue Typhoon lay on one side, all power lost. The ship's hull had been ripped apart, a gaping hole in its right side showing the insides of the wreck. The runway was bent upwards and the hangar's roof had come off entirely. Luckily, Tails hadn't planned on using the X-Tornado and therefore hadn't loaded it. It remained safe at home. The fake palm trees were nowhere to be seen, most likely incinerated in the heat. All power had been lost entirely. Not even a single light so much as flickered within. Neither did anything stir.

Tails lay unconscious in the commander's seat in the bridge of the Typhoon. Since the Typhoon was on it's side, he was slumped on his left shoulder. He had cracked his head off of the side of his seat as the Typhoon had come crashing down after the explosion set off an electro-magnetic pulse, disabling anything and everything electronic that it touched. Patches of Tails' fur on his head were blood stained as the blood slowly dripped down his forehead.

His eyes gradually opened at last. His vision was blurry as he tried to regain conciousness. _Wha'... what? _Tails thought as he tried to gain his bearings. He tried pushing himself up with his left arm, but trying to was unbearable in the shoulder. He winced in pain and prodded round to find out what had happened. To find it dislocated. A drop of blood ran down onto his nose and dropped onto the side of the seat. He then felt a throbbing pain in his left tail. Another few prods revealed it had been sprained. He wasn't sure if he could move. Even if he could, he dare not detach himself from the safety harness that must have saved his life looking at the wreckage. He waited for Sonic, or someone, to come and rescue him. _Wait... Sonic was caught in the explosion! I need to save him!_ Tails jerked and reached for the harness immediately. His head, tail and arm throbbed under the damage that had been dealt. As he reached for his harness clip, he thought _wait... If I get out, I'll fall. And I don't have the energy to stop myself._ He thought this over for a second before coming to a quick decision. He looked outside of the windows for a particular spot before carrying on with his plan. He unclipped himself and instantly rolled off the side of the seat, plummeting to the bottom (or rather the side) of the bridge. He quickly concentrated on the spot he had picked, hoping it would work.

Tails opened his eyes to find himself lying face first and spread eagled on a comfortable tuft of grass. Not worrying about the comfortable position, he immediately raised his head and looked around for any sign of blue fur. The amount of strength he had forebode him from standing up, so he dragged himself forward with his right arm as best he could away from the Blue Typhoon. He had no idea where he was going, or even if he was heading in the right direction, but something told him that that was where he needed to go. _Just keep going... Keep... going... _Tails had no intentions of stopping, despite how much his body complained about the effort. He continued to drag himself along with his right hand. His tail, arm and head continued to ache, as well as his other arm from pulling his entire body weight continuously across the grass. His stomach's fur became grass-stained.

Tails came over a small lump in the ground to see Sonic, spread eagled on his back, lying on the grass. Surprisingly, he looked relatively unharmed. Tails smiled. Then it faded as he thought _wait... never judge a book by its cover._ _Please__ be okay Sonic! _Tails continued to pull himself along, hoping that Sonic was alright.

The poor kit reached Sonic, who lay motionless, eyes closed and mouth open. Both emeralds glowed softly in his hands. Tails barely had enough energy by now to open his mouth. Furthermore, his vision began to black out again. With one last effort, Tails slumped himself over Sonic and thought of the first person that sprung to mind that could help them, followed by where they lived. Just as his world faded, the colours whirled around him, with Sonic by his side. Then nothing.

* * *

While all that was carried out, the dragonfly-like robot watched the Typhoon. The angle it was at made it unable to show whether or not they had survived, but Eggman was confident that they had finally met the end of their lives. Already, he was getting ready to broadcast the victory across the globe, wanting to make it as well known as possible that Mobius' great defender had taken his last breath at last. He had just finished his recorded message and was now beginning to set the frequency to broadcast on every channel to exist on the planet. He had done this so many times to make global threats, that he even had a short-key just for that particular frequency setting. He edited the clip to show the actual footage of the explosion, followed by the after effects of the disabled Typhoon. He sniggered as he began to broadcast the horrific footage, wondering how everyone would react.

* * *

Everything was white. Every direction he looked in was a vast expanse of open whiteness. It somewhat soothed his eyes, rather than strained them. He could get used to this feeling very easily. _Where... where am I?_

Tails looked around. He couldn't find any sign of life. _Am I dead?_ His heart leaped at the idea.  
'No. You're not dead,' a voice rang out. The voice sounded like his, but deeper. Tails looked around frantically for the source.  
'Who are you?' He called out.  
'I am... how should I call it? How about... Saviour? Yes, that will do.' Tails had no idea who this was, but he wanted it to reveal itself.  
'Oh I will in due course,' the voice rang out again. _Can he –_ 'Read your thoughts? Yes. Right now, I am a part of you Tails. And very well, I shall reveal myself.' Suddenly, above the bewildered kit, four streams of a purple gas-like substance began to descend rapidly, twirling around each other, forming a spiral. They reached level with Tails very quickly, within just ten feet from him and it seemed as though they had hit a solid object. As the streams continued to come down, at the spot where the object seemed to be, the smoke spread and curled outwards and upwards. The streams formed one large ball of gas.

Excess smoke began to dissipate and a being was revealed within. Then Tails gasped.  
'You look -'  
'Exactly like you.' It turned round. The creature took on Tails' exact form, every single feature defined from the bangs on his forehead to the tips of his tails. The difference was that this was made out of a solidified version of the purple gas and the irises and pupils of the eyes were nothing but a yellow glowing colour. Had it not been for shadows across the body, it would almost look as if it were in two dimension.

'I apologise for my rudeness,' it spoke, staring at the confused fox. 'I think I should explain myself a little more. Over these past few days, I have been helping you, unlike what you may first have thought.' It didn't seem to move its mouth when it spoke. It didn't even seem to have a mouth whatsoever.  
'What do you want?' Tails asked.  
'I want nothing but to help you. Since you are my host, that is what I will do,' it explained.  
Tails, however, was unconvinced. And with good reason. This creature didn't seem very friendly, even if it did speek in a well-mannered tone.  
'Who are you? And what do you want with me?' he asked again.  
'All will be explained in due course my furry friend.' Tails knew he wasn't good at persuasion and therefore left it there to avoid an argument of sorts. But something still lingered. Something that he thought was this creature's fault.  
'Just... Just don't take control of my emotions, okay? I lost it with that fight with Eggman and I don't want to again. And... to be honest... I think you're the reason why. So don't do it, okay?' The creature then snickered. 'Of course. Now, I think you need to return to reality.'  
'But wait, what's your name?' Tails said exasperatedly.  
'You'll find out soon. But for now, you'll wake up to find both you and your dear friend Sonic in full health.' As this was said, everything blacked out, to be replaced by a fuzzy image of someone standing over Tails.

* * *

Knuckles sat alone, as per usual, with the Master Emerald. He was wide awake while sitting on top of the large green emerald that he had sworn to forever protect. Angel Falls, where it sat, lay quiet and undisturbed. The ancient rocks of the Master Emerald's resting place towered high over the top of the trees. Although the Master Emerald was a powerful object, it was rarely attacked. Which was what made Knuckles' job so easy. It's strange lack of drawing attention.

As Knuckles lay on the oversized emerald, a lone figure approached him from the stairs leading up towards the emerald. Knuckles spotted this out instantly and jumped down to the top of the stairs. The unrecognisable character continued to walk towards the echidna as he stood guard of the gleaming green jewel behind him.

The figure was finally close enough to be seen and Knuckles smiled as he recognised who it was.  
'Well, Shadow, where have you been?' he asked. Shadow came to a stand still in front of Knuckles.  
'There's a few questions I need to ask you,' Shadow exclaimed, not wanting to linger around for too long. _It may have already struck. I wonder if Knuckles knows anything about it._ Knuckles was confused about Shadow's unexpected question, but complied nonetheless.  
'All right, go ahead.'

* * *

'Tails?' came a worried feminine voice. Tails' eyes had to once again re-focus before he could see what was going on. When he recovered, he found his mother's face, clearly worried, staring at him from above. 'Tails, are you okay?' Rosemary asked as Tails sat up slowly. He was in the living room of her house, layed down on the sofa. Rosemary was wearing a lilac dressing gown with blue pyjamas underneath.  
'Yeah... what happened?' Tails actually already knew what happened, but he didn't want to give any forms of explanations as to how he and Sonic had arrived from out of the blue. 'Where's Sonic?' he added as he realised Sonic was nowhere in sight.  
'He's upstairs. Don't worry, you're both fine.' Tails nodded, knowing the real reason why they were both in good condition. _He's okay... that's good.  
_'How did we get here?' was the confused kit's next question.  
'I'm not sure really. We just got woken up by a crash, came downstairs and found you both on top of the table,' Rosemary explained. Tails looked over her shoulder to find the recently repaired table once again shattered. He let out a groan, wishing he had been more precise on where they had landed.  
'How long have we been here?'  
'About... two, three minutes.'

'How's Sonic?' Tails asked immediately, more concerned for the hedgehog's safety than his own. He had managed to avoid the effects of the bomb, but he wasn't so sure about Sonic.  
'He's still unconscious I think,' Rosemary responded. 'What happened though? How did you get in?' she added. Tails still felt it wasn't the right time to tell anyone of his new abilities just yet. Instead, he shrugged and said 'we were in a fight with Eggman. He set off a bomb and now we're here. I dunno how we got here though.' Tails looked down at his feet, trying to think as fast as he could. Then he noticed the grass stains still rubbed on his fur. _Great. That'll take a while to wash out _Tails thought to himself.  
'Is... Is it all right if I take a bath?' Tails asked.  
'Of course honey, I'll run it for -'  
'No, it's okay I'll do it myself' Tails interrupted quickly, not wanting anyone to run around everywhere for him. Rosemary nodded and left the room as Tails headed upstairs to the bathroom.

As he reached the second floor, where the landing stretched out either side as a sort of second hallway, an unexpected voice called out.  
'Tails!' the fox looked round to find his little brother, Artemis, hurtling towards him in his red pyjamas with a grin stretching across most of his small muzzle. Tails chuckled as the small kit clung to his leg and Tails scratched him softly behind his ear.  
'Hey, come on you. Bed,' another voice called out. Tails looked up to find Amadeus standing outside of a door, smiling down at the small fox.  
'Aww' Artemis complained, looking down at the floor and walked heavy footed back into the room he had bounded from.  
'How's Sonic?' Tails said as Artemis closed his bedroom door.  
'He's doing okay. He's still unconscious though,' Amadeus reassured his worried son. 'But what exactly happened? When we found you both, you had a fractured skull, a dislocated shoulder and a sprained tail. Sonic had broken his leg too. I don't understand...' Amadeus said as confusion began to flood his face. Tails shrugged as he became worried himself, looking down at the floor. _How am I going to get out of this one?_

Tails was in a very sticky situation. To his relief, however, Amadeus nodded, most likely misinterpreting Tails' embarrassment and merely stated 'I'll get back to looking after Sonic. And to be honest, you might want to jump in the bath,' Amadeus added, looking at the green fur. Tails chuckled and put one arm behind his back.  
'Yeah, that's what I was gonna do before Artemis jumped on my leg.' Amadeus chuckled, pointed out which door was to the bathroom and went back inside the bedroom to his left while Tails went into the bathroom behind him.

* * *

'Hey, the only 'ancient civilisation' I know of is my own,' Knuckles exclaimed defensively. 'And to be honest with ya Shadow, I don't think there is anything about a great big meteor in our history.' Shadow stood with his arms crossed as always while Knuckles leaned casually on one of the pillars.  
'Well, have you seen anything like it lately?' Shadow continued to question the echidna, determined to press him of any information that he knows.  
'Hmm... Come to think of it... yeah. I seen something crash down at the bottom of the mountain a few days ago, maybe that's it.'  
'Which direction?' Shadow asked as soon as Knuckles had finished his sentence. Knuckles pointed in the direction he had seen it land. 'About there I think, but I'm not too sure, I didn't really pay that much attention to it really.' Shadow nodded and quickly set off in the direction Knuckles was still pointing in. 'Hey Shadow! You could say thanks, or at least goodbye!' Knuckles yelled at the disappearing black and red blur, shaking his fist at it. He knew it was hopeless and half-expected that Shadow would leave without a sign of doing so, but it still annoyed him that the hedgehog had left without another word. He decided to try to calm down instead of destroying yet another pillar and instead rested against the Master Emerald and almost immediately fell into one of his many dreams.

* * *

Tails had just finished cleaning himself. His fur was now clean after a long, frantic scrub to try to remove the grass stains. A quick look in the mirror told him that there was no sign of any damage whatsoever to his forehead. Even his fur had grown over it, which was unusual since fur growing back over wounds didn't normally happen. _Well, it is pretty useful I guess. And by the looks of things, there aren't any side effects so..._ His thoughts trailed off as he finished rinsing both tails out. As he did so, a knock on the door sounded.  
'Yeah?' Tails called out. Amadeus' voice replied through 'just thought I'd let you know that Sonic's up now.'  
'Okay,' Tails called back as he looked around for where he's meant to put the wet towel he now held. 'Uh... Where should I put this towel?' Tails called out.  
'There's a chute just next to the door Tails, put it in there,' Amadeus replied. Tails quickly spotted out the chute and let the damp towel fall into its abyss.

Tails exited the bathroom and immediately headed towards the room where Sonic was resting. The door was wide open, so Tails walked straight in. The room was clearly for guests as it consisted of a single, basic bed and a medium-sized wardrobe with drawers on the bottom.  
'Hey Sonic!' Tails greeted the hedgehog, lying on a bed and looking dazed.  
'Tails? Is that you? Where are ya bro'?' Sonic said in a croaky voice. The final words made Tails' heart leap into his throat. _Oh no... please no! _Tails' expression changed to that of utter fear for Sonic's visual health. _Please... don't say you're blind!  
_'Sonic? Can you see anything?'  
'Yeah... Everything's fuzzy though... I can't tell what's what.' Tails sighed in relief and closed his eyes. Had Sonic really been blinded from the whiter-than-white explosion, he would have been kicking himself for a long time. Tails somehow felt it was his fault that the bomb had gone off. _I did shoot it out of the sky which triggered it... No! It wasn't my fault, I didn't know! _Tails had always known to never blame himself for any accidents. Doing this now would just decrease his morale even further. It had been pretty low lately since his uncharacteristic anger, but at least now he knew what the source of it was.

'There you are!' Sonic said out of the blue. Clearly, he had now cleared his peripheral vision enough to make out Tails' general shape. _It's just nausea_ Tails thought to himself. 'Come here' Sonic said with a sheepish grin. His head spun from disorientation, but he was still able to make out what was what. Tails walked over to the side of the bed. As soon as he was in arm's reach, Sonic pulled him into a tight hug. 'I dunno what ya did back there to get us here, but it was brilliant bro'!'  
'Uh... Thanks... Sonic' Tails tried to say as he had trouble breathing from the hedgehog's bone crushing hug.

He soon let go and Tails was able to breathe again. As he did so, he again remembered how tired he was and wanted to get some sleep. Sonic's mouth widened immensely as he let out one big yawn, showing he felt the same way. Tails closed the door to the bedroom, switched off the light and lay next on the floor next the bed. He didn't mind if he got uncomfortable, so long as Sonic was happy. Tails wasn't able to tell if he was happy with the arrangements or not since Sonic was already fast asleep. Tails used one tail as a cover and the other as a pillow and almost immediately fell asleep.

* * *

Shadow scanned the area for any sign of the meteor. _Come on... it needs to be somewhere._ He dashed past an empty house with a runway built in to one side. Wait... _I recognise those palm trees._ _I wonder if he knows anything._ Shadow came to an abrupt halt in front of Tails' house and climbed the stairs. He knew it would be too late at night for the fox to be up, but he needed to check nevertheless. Shadow rapped on the door three times and waited for a response. When there was none, Shadow sighed and thought to himself _I'll come back in the morning. _He turned to leave via the flight of stairs and climbed down. Only when he reached the bottom did he notice the large crater and small pieces of black rock still scattered here and there. He quickly put two and two together, hoping it would make four. He hoped it didn't, for the fox's sake.

* * *

'Tell me who you are already!' Tails shouted out. He was in the same white space as last time, talking to the creature that had taken his shape. Tails was getting annoyed since it wouldn't give him any information on who, or what, it was. The only thing it had confirmed was what it had given him and where it had come from – the meteor.  
'You don't get it, do you? My name is not necessary. I'll only be here for a short time anyway, until I leave.' Tails groaned at the explanation. 'Which reminds me...' it added. Tails looked up with a now quizzical expression into the creature's glowing yellow eyes and the purple solidified mist that it was formed out of. 'No,' it carried on 'it would spoil the surprise.' Tails' expression only became clearer as he tried to figure out just what it was talking about.  
'Can't you at least tell me what you are?' Tails said as he continued to press the mysterious creature of any information he could acquire.  
'to be honest with you, my furry friend... I don't know myself.' And with that, everything turned into blackness as the purple gas-like look-a-like of Tails with the yellow eyes disappeared and the real Tails returned to his normal dreams.

* * *

I admit this wasn't a very exciting chapter, but it does at least reveal some info. Just bare with me, the next chapter is going to be a lot better.

P.S. Please review? I've had a total of 9 reviews, only by two different people. Tailsisreal, who's reviewed on nearly every single chapter (yay!) and Razor Da Hedgehog on chapter 3 with the shortest review I've ever seen in my life. Apart from those, I haven't had any reviews :(


	10. She's lost it

FINALLY things are becoming a little clearer on your behalf. I think. I hope.

Okay, so Tails has found out what's inside of him. Sort of. He's had a conversation with it at the least. Shadow, meanwhile, is now on his tail - or tails – hoping something hasn't happened to the fox.

Just want to clarify that the creature inside of Tails isn't related to Mephiles in any way. Would just like to thank Tailsisreal for pointing this out XD I haven't played '06 in such a long time I've pretty much forgotten the main plot. This chapter is a bit more humorous – SonAmy fans are gonna love it. I think. Also, I've thrown in a bit of Tae Kwon Do, so if you're Tae Kwon Do-ist (eh?) like me, then you'll probably recognise the move pretty fast. Considering you've done it before.

WOOT! My request for more reviewers actually worked! ^_^ welcome aboard Kitsune-awesomeness, Lloyd Redgrave and shadow zombie! Yay :) (insert some random clip of me getting the glow sticks out and doing the ping-pong rave to All I ever Wanted).

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic or related characters, or Amadeus and Rosemary Prower, they are all copyright of their respective owners. The only characters I do own is Artemis and what's-his-name (not going to give it out just yet, jees -.-') that's infected Tails. If you count him as a character /:l Meh. By the way, Read, Review, Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 10: She's lost it...

Sunday morning came. The sun would have sat neatly on the horizon had it not been obscured by dark clouds that had formed over night. As morning dawned in Sapphire City, everyone woke to their normal routines. Watch the news, eat breakfast, get the children changed for their own daily activities. And possibly go shopping if need be. Tails lay on the floor, fast asleep, next to Sonic who lay snoozing on the bed above. Neither of them stirred, neither of them shown any signs of waking up any time soon. Last night's events had caused them to lose a lot of energy very quickly, even if it is hard for them to do so in the first place.

While the duo slept undisturbed, the rest of the house had already begun to awake. Artemis had already made his way downstairs along with Rosemary. While Artemis quietly ate his breakfast, Rosemary turned on the television to view that morning's news. After a few minutes of the reporters explaining the usual things like the weather and Government activities, they went on to the more serious news.

'...Late last night, a very powerful bomb was set off at Crateméro's Gorge' the female reporter, a green squirrel with a large tail that reached to the back of her head. 'The source is not yet known, but it is supposedly the work of either the infamous Doctor Eggman or possibly Sonic the hedgehog. This theory is doubted, but the reason being is because his companion Tails' ship has been found in the area.' Rosemary raised an eyebrow as a picture of the wreckage came up on the screen. _It's a wonder they're still alive_. Investigators are looking for any signs of what has happened. No one has been injured, but a forest fire, which has been quickly disposed of, had been started.

'On a side note,' continued the male reporter, a grey wolf with a surprisingly calm face that didn't intimidate everyone that seen it 'something has been found underneath the gorge. Our reporters at the scene cannot get any information as of yet as the area is still too dangerous to investigate further, but -' the news abruptly stopped. To be replaced by Eggman's oversized red nose and moustache. Rosemary jumped out of her skin at the sudden surprise, while Artemis started shouting 'bad Eggman! Bad Eggman!' at the screen, obviously remembering the sinister kidnapping that he had committed just two nights ago.

'Good morning Mobius!' Eggman shouted in a very cheery voice, with a smile larger than his nose, as the screen zoomed out to reveal the rest of himself, standing proudly with his fists on his hip. 'If you're watching the news, then you'll be wanting the latest! If you know about Crateméro's Gorge, then you'll probably know about mine and Sonic's brawl. Well, I think I am very pleased to say that I have finally won!

'You heard me right!' He carried on as shock flooded everyone that was watching. Eggman had set up the broadcast to show up at the time of the news Mobius' great defender is now six feet underground! That is, if his body survived the heat. As for his friend Tails, I'm pretty sure he's bit the dust too! So I suggest you surrender to me immediately, or else! You have three days to respond, so make your decision fast.' The screen came up with Eggman's logo, before returning to the news. More would have been said had both reporters not been gaping at the camera, completely incredulous as to what had just been said.

* * *

Shadow stood on top of the rooftops of Sapphire City. It was unusually quiet, even for this early time of the morning. He looked across the city, gloomed by the dark clouds above. Having already checked the house of its occupants to find there weren't any, he had now set off to find out where Tails had run to. His best bet to draw out the two-tailed fox was to wait for Eggman to make a move. Unlike the rest of Mobius, he hadn't found out about the so-called 'catastrophe' yet.

A lone car passed the building Shadow stood on top of. _Something's not right_ Shadow thought to himself as it turned a corner and disappeared behind another building. _The streets are usually packed at this time_. But Shadow still had his mind set on fulfilling his goal and let the mysterious lack of congestion sail away. He doubted it would concern him, so letting it get in the way would only cause more problems.

* * *

Tails woke to find he had been sleeping on his left arm. He rolled his eyes, knowing what would come next when he rolled off of it. As expected when he sat up, he couldn't feel anything in his arm. It was actually possible to stab it and he wouldn't be able to feel a thing, until the blood came flooding back. As it did, the cold feeling rushed down his arm, followed by pins and needles as his nerves and muscles came back to life with the renewed oxygen. Tails flexed his fingers before standing up. A shuffling sound suddenly met his ears and he looked round to the source, to find it was just Sonic rolling around in his sleep. _Hope you're okay Sonic..._ Tails thought to himself before setting off downstairs.

Tails entered the living room to find Artemis in his red pyjamas with his legs crossed and tails wrapped around his body, watching morning television shows and Rosemary with her feet curled underneath her body, yet again in her dressing gown.

'Morning' Tails said to the two.  
'Morning. Apparently, you're dead,' Rosemary said as Tails sat down. Tails, taken aback, merely exclaimed 'huh?!' with a very confused expression.  
'Doctor Eggman decided to tell the world that you and Sonic died in some explosion. Do you mind telling me what happened last night then?' Tails sighed. He knew it was an inevitable question, so he had spent most of the night devising answers to everything that would be asked. They were mostly true, with just a few things 'modified' or left out, so it wasn't really lying.  
'All right,' he said. 'Me and Sonic were in a fight with Eggman. The robot he used against us blew up after I shot it down. And as for how we ended up here...' Tails' voice trailed off, leaving his sentence unfinished.  
'Well, it seems as though you and Sonic have some explaining to do, since everyone now thinks you're dead,' Rosemary concluded and Tails nodded in response.  
'We might do it next time Eggman strikes, so it gives us an advantage over him,' Tails begun thinking on his feet again. It would be the most helpful since Eggman wouldn't use much force to take over now that his arch nemesis was presumed dead. He would just send out basic robots to roam the streets instead.

* * *

'Oh ho hoo! Hee he haaa haaa!' Eggman giggled in delight. He had been doing this for so long, he had nearly neglected to start the production of his robot army. Nearly. The machines were now operating at their highest possible speed, robots being finished faster than you could finish a cup of tea. The first batch had already been set off to Sapphire City. He wanted to take it over first merely because it was the closest, and it held the University that would become very handy to him when building bigger and better robots. He had actually begun to wonder why he hadn't tried to do so in the first place. _Ah yes. Sonic _he reminded himself. _Him getting in the way would explain why I never tried before.  
_'Doctor, don't you think you're over reacting?' Decoe exclaimed.  
'Nonsense! I've won! I finally beat that infernal hedgehog!' Eggman shouted at a taken aback Decoe, before he started giggling uncontrollably again. Decoe sighed and exited the room to check up on the robot manufacturing statistics, or at least make sure Bocoe was doing his job properly, instead of pressing the wrong buttons, like he had done last time, so left Doctor Eggman to his excitement.

Eggman, after several minutes of uncontrollable laughing (and possibly losing a few pounds due to the continuous rocking back and forth), finally checked up to see how his little army was going in Sapphire City through the Egg-dragonfly. His smile almost faded immediately. _Oh. This will be fun to watch!_

* * *

'AAARRRGGHHHHH!' the scream sounded out throughout the expansive street. The robots, although built with no emotions whatsoever, were retreating rapidly from a force that would have Knuckles begging for mercy in mere seconds. One such robot was pounded into the ground by a very large, red and yellow hammer.

Amy rampaged at the runaway robots, all bearing Eggman's logo. It wasn't the robots that made her angry – it was the face that the logo held. She had hated it before, but now she despised it to the point of pummelling even the slightest glimpse of it to a pulp. Which was exactly what she was doing. She savagely chased the fleeing androids. One that couldn't keep up with its team mates was shortly pounded by a crushing blow from above. Amy flattened the metal to a pancake, stamping as hard as she could and whacking continuously at the pile. Her eyes were not blazing fires, but roaring infernos. No one had seen her so angry in living memory. A reporter's chopper hovered above, recording the action. The cameraman hoped she didn't turn on them.  
'EGGMAN!' she shouted at the top of her lungs, still stampeding towards the robots that were now trying to leave the city via the quickest route possible. Amy chased after them, waving her Pico-Pico hammer as if she were trying to swat a very annoying fly. 'EGGMAN! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU...!'

_

* * *

_

Is that... Amy?

Tails thought as he watched the news report. _I know she can get mad when she wants to, but... I better tell Sonic before she does something drastic._ Tails leapt to his feet, went in to the hallway and climbed the stairs to the top. He barged into Sonic's room, to find him still fast asleep on the bed.

'Sonic! Sonic! Wake up!' Tails yelled as he shook the hedgehog violently. He had no idea why he was overreacting, but it seemed to him that if he didn't, then Amy would do something she would probably one day regret.  
'Huh? Who?' Sonic jolted awake, asking random questions.  
'Sonic, quick, you need to hurry!' Tails said in a panicky voice.  
'Why, where's the fire?' Sonic replied as he stretched and yawned.  
'Amy's gone berserk.' Sonic's eyes widened at this. Unbeknownst to Tails, he had completely misinterpreted the message and ran over to the window to see if she was at the front door. _I haven't even done anything this time! Have I?!  
_'How long d'ya think it'll take for her to get here Tails?!' Sonic said exasperatedly as he turned round to the dumbfounded fox.  
'I didn't mean it like that. Listen...' Tails quickly explained the message that had been broadcasted to every citizen on Mobius and what Amy was doing in the middle of the City. '...so I guess she thinks your dead.'  
'I better go tell her I am alive, before she goes on a murderous rampage. Although by the sounds of it, she already is.' At this, Sonic headed for the hallway.  
'Wait up Sonic, I'll come with you!' Tails shouted over his shoulder, chasing the hedgehog down the stairs and out of the front door. The duo sped off towards the centre of the city, where Amy was still having her tantrum. Hopefully, the sight of Sonic would calm her down.

_

* * *

_

Come on... where are you?!

Shadow was once again poised on the rooftops, watching what remained of the squad of robots with the pink hedgehog in hot pursuit. Shadow begun to get side-tracked towards the reason why Amy was so angry. _What's wrong with her? She's acting as if Eggman's just killed someone she loves. Humph, well there's only one person she loves and I highly doubt he's actually lost to Eggman... _He continued to watch the unnecessarily violent hedgehog smash any robot that got with arm's distance until they resembled pancakes.

'You... killed... my Sonic! When I'm through with you Eggman... you're going... to be joining him!' Amy had completely lost the plot. If the police had dared to approach her at the time and she didn't fight back, she would be sent strapped tightly in a straight jacket and sent to the nearest Asylum ASAP. Lucky for her, the police didn't even want to be in the same street, thinking they would be her next victim if she seen someone that resembled Eggman in any shape or form. Instead, they just hung back and let her deal with them. Actually, she was doing a pretty good job at getting them out, so they seen no reason to intervene.

Sonic and Tails followed a series of streets and side streets, just guessing and following the faint sound of a helicopter to find where Amy was. Eventually, they arrived at the street through a back alley a hundred metres behind Amy.  
'Amy! Wait!' Sonic rushed off towards the distraught hedgehog while Tails hung back, seeing as there was nothing much else he could do.  
'Amy!' it was faint. She could hardly hear it. All she could hear was the blood pounding through her head. 'Amy!' She thought she was hearing things. She tried to block it out by pounding ruthlessly on the flattened android on the floor. 'Amy! It's me!' Her hammer stopped in mid-air. Now she knew she wasn't hearing things. It sounded too real. _But... It can't be..._ Her head slowly turned over her shoulder. There he was, running towards her, waving his arms frantically, trying to make himself seen. Amy dropped her hammer and ran towards the blue hedgehog, tears starting to stream down her face.

As soon as Sonic was in arm's reach, Amy jumped on him and pulled him in a bone-crushing hug. Sonic's eyes rolled up as he tried to gasp in air, his diaphragm's movements restrained by the pink hedgehog's embrace.  
'Sonic! I... thought... you were dead.'  
'Well... I'm not... Amy... please! I... can't breathe!' Amy, reluctantly, let go and Sonic gasped in the air. 'What'cha... think you're doing Amy?'  
'Well, Eggman said he had killed you, and, well, you know...' was Amy's reply. _Well with the news of my supposedly dying _Sonic thought to himself _it was pretty predictable. _Sonic nodded to show he understood and watched the retreating robots exit the city, to everyone's (including their own) delight.

Except Eggman, who banged on his controls and tried to order them to go back, but it was no use. Instead, Eggman just went and started banging his head on the controls. Lifting his head up slowly, dropping it so it made a dull thud on the keyboard, and then repeating this. Again and again.

* * *

Tails stood at the back alley, watching Sonic calm Amy down. Then movement on the other side of the street, above the buildings, caught his attention. He looked up. But nothing there. _It was probably a bird. _Tails waved it away from his mind and continued to watch the comforting unfold. Then a thud sounded behind him. Tails spun round to look at the culprit.

'Sh-Shadow? Is that you?' Tails said as he squinted at the black and red hedgehog, almost invisible in the low light.

Shadow didn't say a word, but instead lunged straight at Tails to deliver a punch that would knock him out instantly. Without even thinking, Tails reacted. Remembering one of the take-down moves Knuckles had taught him for his birthday, he took a step back with his right leg as he seen the fist raise. He timed the grab perfectly – with his right arm, he grabbed Shadow's right wrist on the outside. Tails then twisted Shadow's arm, so that his elbow was pointing upwards, rendering it harmless. With all of the force he could muster, Tails smashed down on Shadow's arm with his own free arm, just above the elbow, forcing the hedgehog to the ground. It all happened so fast, Shadow was already on the floor by the time he realised what had just happened. He struggled to get free of the unbreakable lock, but it was no use. Shadow groaned. Taken down by someone half his size. And nowhere near his strength. If Shadow cared, he would be severely embarrassed.

'Let go!' Shadow shouted over his shoulder as he tried to struggle free. Tails applied as much pressure has he dared to keep Shadow grounded. But he had to be careful – too much pressure would break his arm easily. But it was hard. Fright told him to keep pushing until he couldn't push any more.  
'Wh-What is it you want Shadow?' Tails exclaimed as his body shaked with adrenaline. 'What have I done? I haven't done anything!'  
'Exactly! Now let me go so I can do it for you!'  
'What are you talking about?!' Tails was so confused, it made his head spin. He had no idea why Shadow wanted him so badly, but he knew it couldn't be good. The last time Shadow had wanted someone, nothing had stopped him from getting to her.  
'Shadow?! Tails?! What's going on?!' Sonic, along with Amy, had rushed over to see the commotion. 'By the way, where ya been Shadow? How'd ya -'  
'It doesn't matter,' Shadow butted in. 'All that matters is that he's stopped,' Shadow motioned his head towards Tails. Tails looked at Sonic with a 'please tell me what's going on' expression. Sonic merely shrugged, just as clueless as Tails was.

'Shadow, we don't know what you're talking about. Please just tell us!' Tails exclaimed as Shadow tried to pull his arm away from the grasp, which only caused Tails to push down even further to keep hold. Shadow gave a short gasp of pain and bared his teeth.  
'It... must be stopped. Or we're all doomed,' Shadow managed to say. Sonic and Tails exchanged the same look as they had just done.  
'What's 'it' exactly, Shadow?' Amy unexpectedly spoke out.

Before Shadow could answer, Tails' grip loosened slightly. The hedgehog felt this slight lapse and suddenly jerked his arm away, ripping it out of the arm-lock. Shadow jumped to his feet as Tails fell backwards into the alley wall. Shadow immediately lunged for the fox, while simultaneously taking out a chaos emerald. Sonic reacted to the lunge and threw all of his weight towards Shadow, tackling him against a nearby street bin as Tails and Amy made a quick dash for the nearest exit to the city. The force knocked out the wind from Shadow, leaving him gasping for air as his solar plexus was squeezed against his back bone. _Alright, that should give us some time_ Sonic thought to himself.

The back of Tails' head was throbbing from the impact. But he didn't worry about it – all he thought about was run. Run. And keep running and don't stop. He had a vague idea on what Shadow was really talking about. _But how could he know? No one does, not even Sonic._

'C'mon Tails!' Amy called over her shoulder. Tails realised how much he had fallen behind and sped up his pace to catch up. Just as he did so, Sonic came up on his left.  
'So, what exactly are we running from?' Sonic said. Tails shook his head, pretending to have no idea why Shadow wanted him. 'Let's go a bit faster,' Sonic added and rushed over to Tails' other side and lifted a surprised Amy off her feet. 'C'mon Tails!' Sonic called as he begun to speed up. Tails spun both tails and begun propelling himself, slowly matching Sonic's speed as they raced through the open fields that outlined the city and towards Angel Falls.

Shadow gasped for air as he lay on all fours, clutching his stomach. _They got away... Great. I'll have to track them down... But I need to gain his trust... Maybe telling him what it is would help. _Shadow finally caught his breath and stood up. _They'll probably head back to Angel Falls, so I'll go there._ _If that thing gets out of control, we'll all suffer._ Shadow turned out of the alleyway and skated off towards Angel Falls, tailing the others that were no longer anywhere to be seen.


	11. Just be there for him

Guys, what happened to all of the reviewers? You reviewed for one chapter and disappeared DX Ah well, good things don't last forever. Although it was pretty short-lived. Thanks to Tailsisreal though for yet another review :)

Keep your eyes VERY peeled guys/gals, no one has still noticed the hidden clues, only the blatant obvious one. Good luck to those who have gotten themselves obsessed in finding them, if there are any of you doing that at all (or it might be just me that'll look through every nook and cranny for such clues if I was the reader ... meh).

Disclaimer: (don't ask me why I'm writing this like a declaration of some sort – makes it a little better to read I guess) I, DarkSword512, do not own Sonic, Tails or any related characters. They are all copyright of Sega. Also, I do not own Amadeus or Rosemary Prower, they are copyright of Archie Comics. But I do own Arty. He's mine... (Smeagol voice) MY PRECIOUS! (don't ask, I was in one of my psychotic moments when I wrote this – shortly afterwards, I almost started screaming my 'Lefties shall rule the world!' thing. Thoughts of World Domination for the win!). Anyway, read, review, enjoy! Or enjoy, read, review. Or... I'm gonna shut up.

* * *

Chapter 11: Just be there for him

'So any idea why he's after you Tails?' Sonic and Tails sat in the hangar at Tails' desk, wanting privacy from Amy who was upstairs in the living room. Tails was now stumped. He had no idea whether he should tell Sonic or not about what he had found out last night. If he did, Sonic would get extremely worried for his health, even if he wasn't being affected. If he didn't tell him then Sonic would be in continuous brawls with Shadow, trying to defend the kit, even when he didn't know why he was. And Tails knew full well that Shadow was the only person to exist that could best Sonic, making it a daunting task for him.

Tails collapsed his head into his hands as he tried to think of what would be the better option. _What does Sonic already know... That I'm improving. And, and he thinks that I think I've got that thing from a few nights ago. Hmm... I could say maybe Shadow probably thinks the same? I guess that's all I can do really..._ Tails raised his head and rapidly prepared his answer to the awaiting hedgehog.  
'Sonic. Remember when I told you about that thing that attacked me a few days ago?' Sonic nodded to show he remembered. He actually remembered it quite well, since it resulted in Tails being blasted through the front door with enough force to make the damages that had been done to his body even worse. _  
_'Well, if he thinks that bro', he's kinda taking it too far,' Sonic spoke out. Tails nodded in agreement, wondering what Shadow had in store for him if they were to meet again.  
'Maybe... Maybe Shadow thinks the same? Maybe he overheard me and... And thought it could do something to all of us?' Tails remembered the last word the black and red hedgehog had spoken: '_It... must be stopped. Or we're all doomed'. _Those words sent violent shivers down Tails' spine. _What did he mean?_

* * *

The Egg-Dragonfly had caught everything – Sonic coming out of the alleyway and calming the enraged Amy, all the way through their reunion, to when they rushed back to where Sonic had come from. _That... infernal hedgehog... survived... _Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun watched the distraught doctor continuously beat his head off of the control panel of the Egg-Hawk. None of them blamed him either. Even they had thought that Sonic had finally bit the dust, despite the fact that the three of them knew the news was too good to be true. They had also hoped that Sonic's downfall wasn't true, or else they wouldn't have much of a job. Bokkun wouldn't have any messages to deliver to anyone, which would probably lead to his disassembly due to annoying the doctor so much about wanting to deliver a message, while Decoe and Bocoe would be monitoring the robot constructions until they fell apart from rusting so much that the metal could no longer support them.

'Doctor,' Decoe said at last through the silence, with the exception of the banging sounds of head on metal. 'Who's that?' Decoe pointed at the screen. A dark figure was emerging from an alleyway. Eggman looked up. He soon spotted what Decoe was trying to point out and pressed a few buttons to zoom in. It was Shadow, clutching his stomach, watching the trio dash off hastily towards the outskirts of the City.  
'What does Shadow want with them?' Bocoe asked.  
'How should I know?' Eggman retorted in a gruff voice. 'But...' a plan quickly formed in Eggman's mind and he smiled at himself. _It will work this time, I'm sure of it!  
_'Decoe, Bocoe, prepare my Eggpod!'  
'Yes Doctor!' The duo chimed simultaneously, rushing off towards the hangar where the Eggpod was currently stored.  
'Anything for me Doctor?' Bokkun asked excitedly, but the excitement was blown away when Eggman waved a hand and turned round back to the computer as a silent 'no'. Bokkun flew off, sulking badly.

* * *

Tails lay fast asleep on his desk. Sonic had gone upstairs to see what Amy was up to (to find she was preparing breakfast in the hope she would fully calm down from), so Tails tried to kill some time by seeing if there was anything he could do to the X-Tornado, but instead ended up crashing out there and then. He had no idea how he had lost so much energy so fast, but there he was, head in arms, tails hanging limply over the sides. He dreamt he was in the X-Tornado, back on Earth, with Chuck in the co-pilot's seat behind him. These dreams came back to him every now and then and they always brought happy thoughts along with them. They reminded him of what happened nearly every day back on Earth. Him and Chuck would go out and test the X-Tornado, or modify until the X-Tornado's original status was unrecognisable amongst the improvements.

The duo flew high over Station Square, looking for any Chaos Emeralds in the area. Tails, however, wasn't concentrating on looking for the Chaos Emerald they possessed to glow, but instead marvelling the scenery of the city landscape.  
'Anything yet Tails?' Chuck called to Tails, snapping him back to reality as he took in the landscape. Tails checked the Chaos Emerald in front of him, glowing a pleasant purple. It's intensity hadn't changed a bit, which was another way in saying 'nothing here'.  
'Not yet Chuck,' Tails called back. Chuck nodded and checked the systems to make sure they had enough fuel. Tails averted back to the landscape, making a mental note to take a camera with him next time they searched.

But then something happened. Something that had never happened in any of the dreams before. The landscape changed and Chucked suddenly disappeared into nothingness. Tails looked wildly around as everything changed. The skyscrapers were swept away in the wind, to be replaced by a vast stretch of trees. The clear blue skies turned into a dull grey as the skyline changed. Tails was frightened. _What's going on?!_ He thought to himself. He had completely forgotten that this was all a dream because it all suddenly seemed so real. He pressed his nose against the window to see if he could find where he was.

* * *

Shadow skated towards Angel Falls, tracking their footsteps in case they had had a change of heart. He had remembered word-for-word what the text in the temple had said. There was something else he could do with what he had learned, but he wasn't really concerned about it. All he needed to do was remove the creature by any means necessary. Luckily, he knew exactly how to get rid of it, so deaths didn't fall into the category. It was just getting the fox to comply that would be the biggest problem. Well, second biggest.

Shadow continued to skate along the path that went through the forest. When he came out the other side, he found himself looking over the meadows of Angel Falls that he had passed through the night before. He continued down the familiar path, still keeping an eye on their tracks.

* * *

Tails looked around frantically, trying to figure out where he was. _What's going on?! How did I...? This really isn't good!_ Tails had still forgotten that this was all just a dream. He was flying over something that looked pretty familiar though. _That's... That's the Blue Typhoon... So this must be Crateméro's Gorge... What am I doing here?_ Sure enough, the remains of Crateméro's Gorge were directly below him. The carnage had still left it's mark. A large crater lay in the forests along the Gorge's edge. Many of the trees were leafless and blackened. One side of the Gorge had collapsed entirely, blocking the river flow. Had the top been level, the water would build up into a dam, but instead it slanted at an angle, allowing the water to run over one side. It looked somewhat more relaxed however in daylight, even if there was no sun peering through the dense black clouds.

As quickly as he arrived, everything changed again. But this time, it was within the blink of an eye. Tails suddenly found himself standing next to the edge of the Gorge, walking along the side, looking for something. He wasn't sure what, but he knew he had to. Tails looked down to find the entrance to a dark cave, it's contents obscured by the lack of light within. He spun his tails until his feet lifted from the ground and flew down towards the cave entrance. As soon as he entered, everything went white.

* * *

'Tails, come get some breakfast!' Sonic called down the stairs. After a few moments of silence, natural paranoia immediately kicked in. 'Tails? You there bro'?' Sonic called out. After another few moments of silence, he went downstairs to see what was going on.

He found Tails fast asleep on his desk. _How'd he lose so much energy so fast?_ Sonic walked over to wake the snoozing fox. Sonic tried the empty threat approach.  
'Tails! Wake up, or I'm having your breakfast.' Still no response. Sonic was now worried. The thought of someone else eating his food usually woke Tails up, but either Tails was in too much of a deep sleep, or it had gone in one ear and out the other.

Then Tails rolled his head over and Sonic found the reason why he wasn't responding. His face looked as though he was in pain. Teeth gritted, eyes shut very tightly, heavy breathing and sweating was what Sonic witnessed.  
'Tails!' Sonic rushed to his side, shaking the fox vigorously, trying to snap him out of it. 'Amy, help me!' he shouted up the stairs as he lay the disturbed kit on the floor. Amy rushed down the stairs, two at a time, to the hedgehog's aid.  
'What's going on?!' She proclaimed, skidding down on her knees to Tails' side. He continued to breath heavily, sweat dripping down his fur. Neither of the hedgehogs could even guess what was happening, except that Tails was probably having a bad dream. If so, it was a very bad one.

All of a sudden, Tails' eyes bolted wide open, causing Sonic and Amy to jump. The first thing Tails seen was Sonic leaning over him, looking very scared.  
'Uh... What's going on?' Tails asked.  
'What happened there Tails? Were you having a bad dream or something?'  
'No, why?' Tails sat up and looked around. 'Why am I on the floor?' he added.  
'Don't you know anything about what you just done?' Tails looked around, wondering if he had started sleep-walking and broke something, or hurt somebody. Once he concluded that nothing had been done, he shrugged his shoulders.  
'You looked like you were having a nightmare,' Amy responded, followed by a confused expression from Tails.  
'You were shivering and sweating like mad. What was it you were dreaming?' Sonic was clearly worried for Tails as he tried to find the source of the problem.  
'I dunno, not much. But it wasn't anything scary or anything like that.' Tails looked from one hedgehog to the other, trying to figure out what was it they were really thinking. 'Is that...?' Tails said as he sniffed the air.  
'Oh no! It's going to burn!' Amy rushed up the stairs to try to save the hot meals from becoming too hot. Sonic and Tails watched her as she disappeared round the door frame towards the kitchen, leaving the two brothers alone in the hangar.

'C'mon Tails, what's going on?' Sonic asked after a moment's silence.  
'What do ya mean?'  
'You've been acting pretty strangely lately. The fantasy of something possessing you. You're more aggressive recently. What just happened now. C'mon, what's up?' It was clear that Sonic had been more observant than Tails had thought. He knew full well that when Sonic confronted him like this, he had no choice but to tell him the whole truth. He sighed and started to think of where he should begin. Making a decision, he looked up at Sonic and begun to explain.  
'That 'fantasy' you were talking about... it's real.' Sonic rolled his eyes immediately.  
'Tails, -!'  
'Listen Sonic!' Tails shouted, raising his voice. Sonic blinked at the sudden aggression from the normally passive fox that wouldn't raise his voice, no matter how angry he was. _Maybe she did more to him than we thought._ 'It talked to me last night, I swear. It's made me stronger, faster, it repairs my wounds... I can even teleport because of it! That's why we ended up in my mom and dad's house last night. I managed to get to you so we could get somewhere safe.' Tails sighed again and looked at his feet. 'I should of told you sooner... But I didn't want you to worry about me...' Tails looked up again in an almost puppy-dog-eyed fashion to Sonic. After a few moments of silence, Tails lunged at Sonic and wrapped his arms around his neck as a single tear fell onto Sonic's shoulder. Sonic, taking pity on the distressed fox, patted him gently on the back.

After a few moments, Tails let go and wiped a tear from his eye as he set himself on his knees.  
'So what was the dream about Tails?' Sonic asked. Tails tried to remember, but the dream wouldn't come back to him. All he remembered was flying over Station Square and the next thing he knew, he was lying flat on his back with Sonic and Amy above him.  
'Uh... I'm not sure. I can hardly remember anything. But it was just a dream, it can't do anything to me.'  
'Alright, if you're sure. You be careful Tails for now, okay?' Tails nodded. And climbed to his feet. Hunger pains struck him, letting out a low growl that nearly echoed around the extensive hangar. Sonic and Tails began to laugh.  
'I think you're stomach is speaking for me too Tails,' Sonic said, adding to the chuckles.

'Tails, someone wants you on the phone!' Amy called down from upstairs. Sonic and Tails stopped laughing immediately and looked at each other, wondering who it could be. The two of them went upstairs. Sonic sat down and begun to channel flick while he waited for breakfast. Meanwhile, Tails took the phone from Amy, thanked her and put the telephone to his ear.  
'Hello?' Tails asked to the mystery caller.  
'Tails?' came the response. It was Rosemary.  
'How did you know I was here?' Tails asked, wondering how they had found out when no one knew where they had gone to.  
'We took a guess and got it right. Anyway, someone wants to talk to you.' The sound of the phone being transferred from one person to another sounded through the speaker.  
'Hi Tails!' came the childish voice of Artemis. Tails smiled.  
'Hey Arty,' Tails responded, smiling.  
'Where did you go?' Artemis asked. Tails thought for a moment to think of the right thing to say.  
'I... I had to go home for something.'  
'When are you coming back?'  
'I dunno Arty. Sorry.' There was a few moments of silence, and Tails suddenly visualised the young cub on the verge of tears, holding the phone with trembling hands. He tried pushing the thoughts out, or he would probably end up in the same way.  
'Okay,' Arty said at last. 'Here's mummy' he added as the sound of the phone being moved from one hand to another could be heard again.

'He really looks up to you, you know. When you're not around, he keeps asking to see you. And you've seen what he's like when he does see you.' Tails chuckled. He knew full well, given the fact that just last night, Artemis had jumped onto his leg and clung on to it as if his life depended on it. 'Don't let him down, whatever you do Tails. Poor thing's sulking right now actually.' Tails' heart leaped. He didn't like it when he upset people, and the added thought of him being the role model of the person he had upset struck him extra hard. Tails' words were nearly caught in his throat, but he managed to spit them out.  
'Don't... Don't worry mom. I won't let him down. I promise.' Rosemary's soft chuckle met Tails' ear.  
'I know you won't. I'm gonna hang up now, we'll talk some other time. Bye!'  
'See yah!' Tails said in a cheery voice, but he knew it contrasted with his emotions entirely. He felt really downhearted of what he had done without even knowing. He could even take a guess as to why she had to go – try and cheer him up. He put the phone down and turned round to find his steaming breakfast on the table – beans on toast. The hunger pains he had strongly felt earlier had now disappeared.

'Sorry Amy, but... I don't really feel that hungry.' With that Tails climbed the stairs to his room and closed the bedroom door.  
'What's wrong with him?' Amy asked.  
'It's a long story Amy, and I don't think he'd want anyone else to know about it,' Sonic replied, trying to pull Amy away from the subject.  
'And what makes you so sure of that then?' Amy retorted, feeling as if she is being purposefully left out of the loop.  
'Because he's only just told me about it!' Sonic shouted accidentally. He took a breath to calm his nerves and carried on with a calmer tone. 'You know as well as I do that he tells me everything. For him to of considered not telling me has gotta be a bad sign Amy, and you know it. So just drop it before you pick it up. Don't badger him, me, or anyone else for that matter. You can see he's already upset enough as it is, don't make things worse.' Amy was going to fight back, but she knew that, at the end of the day, what Sonic had said was true. She turned silently back to her breakfast, thinking of what might be going through Tails' head right now.

_

* * *

_

Alright, there's the mountain. Now I just need to –

Shadow stopped dead in his tracks as Eggman, Decoe and Bocoe appeared from nowhere directly in front of him.  
'Get out of my way Eggman, I have no time for your mind games.'  
'Let's not be hasty now Shadow. And besides, I can help you.' Shadow raised an eyebrow at the doctor's proposition. He knew from first-hand experience that Eggman used mind-boggling tricks to persuade people in to doing what he wanted them to. _But, if the doctor can help me catch the fox...  
_'What exactly is it you have in mind doctor?'  
'I'll help you with whatever it is you're doing, and then you help me defeat Sonic. From what I've seen, whatever your doing is centred around them, so you're really just getting two birds with one stone. What say you Shadow, please?' Eggman clasped his hands together in a classic begging pose. Shadow rolled his eyes, seeing how pathetic the doctor looked in such a humiliating pose. But there he was, trying to look as innocent as possible.

'It depends... can you make a machine that could help me in capturing Tails?'  
'Um... I... Er... M-might be able to, but er...' Eggman was drastically looking for the right words to say, even looking at Decoe and Bocoe for support, but received none as they too were lost for words. The image of Tails tearing apart his Egg-Scorpion was still very vivid in his mind, leaving him doubtful of whether he could ever create such a machine. Shadow read Eggman's gestures like a book, and to him they said 'no, I'm not even going to try it!'.  
'Heh. Fine, see yah.' With that, Shadow turned, waved and continued on his journey.

'No! Shadow! Wait! Please!' Shadow couldn't believe what he was hearing. For the second time in just a few days, Eggman was pleading to Shadow for support. He had now started making the really stupid deals that were only reserved for absolute desperation.  
'We'll give you your own ship!' Eggman said.  
'We'll clean your shoes!' Decoe exclaimed  
'We'll treat you like a king!' Bocoe shouted.  
Shadow, quickly losing it, spun round and bellowed 'ENOUGH!'. All three stopped immediately, Eggman's mouth halfway through finishing a word. 'I'll help you if you help me do something first. And that's to capture Tails.'  
'But why? What do you need Tails for?' Decoe asked kindly. Shadow looked up to the ever greying sky and folded his arms before explaining.

'He's a danger to this world. Much more than you could imagine. What you've seen of his new-found abilities is nothing compared to what he could really do. It nearly wiped out a civilisation before, so what's to stop it from trying to take over the entire world this time?' The three of them stared at Shadow as silence fell upon them. But the silence didn't remain because they were waiting for Shadow to say more, but rather the thought of Tails unleashing these new 'hidden abilities' that he had found. They had watched him mercilessly demolish their base, so to get on the wrong side of him now would mean their life expectancy would drop like a rock. 'So... are you going to help me?'

Eggman, Decoe and Bocoe were now flying away as fast as the Eggpod would allow them to. Shadow sighed, seeing this entire discussion as one big waste of time. It was evident that they didn't want to get on the receiving end of the barrel and just hang back and hope this whole affair just blows over. Shadow let out a low growl before heading back down the path towards Angel Falls. _Typical. Eggman running at the first sign of danger._

* * *

Sonic sat watching the television, but not really taking in what was going on. He was thinking about what he should do to help Tails. _But I don't even know how to help him... _He looked round to Amy who was cleaning the dishes. She had left Tails' in case he became hungry again and decided to come down to eat. Her hopes of such an event weren't very high though.

Tails lay on his stomach, face in pillow. Every now and then, a tear would trickle from his eyes and fall onto the pillow, gradually making it wetter. _This isn't a gift, it's a curse. Ever since it came, everything's gone downhill for me... for everyone. But... how do I get rid of it? Am I stuck with it for ever? No... there's gotta be a way... There just has to be!_ _Argh, but where do I … _Tails suddenly thought of Shadow. _Maybe... maybe Shadow knows? It won't be too hard finding him if he's looking for me. Just put myself out in the open and I bet he'll be there._

There was a knock at the door. Sonic looked out of the window to see if he could see the caller. He couldn't see much, but he could see two black and red quills poking out from the edge of the window frame.  
'Sonic, I know you're in here, all I want to do is talk,' Shadow said through the door.  
'And what makes you so sure I believe you?' Sonic retorted as he motioned silently to Amy to get Tails out of here.  
'Because if you don't, then the world is doomed,' Shadow said in a matter-of-fact tone. 'As well as Earth if it acquires the Chaos Emeralds.' Both Sonic and Amy froze at these words.  
'What's going on Shadow? Tell me!' Sonic yelled, wanting to know all the facts before they made any decisions.  
'Let me in and I'll tell you. Don't worry, I wont try anything funny.'

* * *

After writing this chapter, I decided to draw lil' Arty on the verge of breaking down. And at the time I was listening to Welcome to my Life by Simple Plan. Guess what the first words in the lyrics are? 'Do you ever feel like breaking down?' AND it repeats it over and over again throughout the song! So I left it on repeat while I drew the pic XD


	12. Where to go

Disclaimer: You should know by now who I do and don't own, right? My god... Sonic, Tails etc. is Sega's, not mine, likewise Rose and Amadeus are Archie's. Arty is mine. And this story. And all of the artwork I've done of the different scenes :P.

So is Shadow going to explain what is going on? DUH! That's where the cliffhanger left you -.-' Think! ^_^

Something I don't get: chapter 6 has the least amount of views, even though it's smack bang in the middle. :S

Anyway, read, review, enjoy!

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Chapter 12: Where to go...

Rain spattered the windows on the outside. The downpour had happened so suddenly and so ferociously, it was now impossible to be able to see past a hundred metres. Sonic and Shadow were at the living room table, waiting for Amy to return with Tails, who was still locked away in his room. She came down the stairs, shaking her head.  
'He's not coming out. I've tried everything, but he won't even unlock the door.' This wasn't technically true, but Sonic had strictly forbidden her to threaten bash the door down and to only take a calm approach. He sighed at the news.  
'I'll go to talk to him then.' Amy nodded while Shadow sat patiently. Sonic headed upstairs and Amy picked up Tails' uneaten breakfast and put it in the microwave to re-heat it later when he wanted it, so its heat would be fresh when he received it.

Sonic knocked on Tails' door. Until now, there had only been one reason why Sonic would have to try to get Tails to open his door, and those times had been during lightning storms. Tails always ran to his room and bolted the door shut, strangely believing that if he did so, the sound would be kept out.  
'Go away...' Tails called.  
'Tails, c'mon bud. We need to talk to ya and we're not doing it through a door.' Sonic waited for a response, but there was none. 'C'mon, what's the matter?  
'I let Artemis down... I left without even saying goodbye, and... a-and now he's crying b-because I said I d-don't when I'm c-coming back.' _So this is what it's about._ He knew how sensitive the fox got when people got upset, and even more sensitive when it was because of him that they're upset in the first place.  
'C'mon Tails. Shadow's here. He'll help you with your... thing.' Sonic wasn't sure of what exactly it was he was talking about, but he supposed that if Tails' theory was right about Shadow knowing what was wrong with him, then perhaps saying this would lure the fox out.

The door clicked, and Sonic smiled. Tails opened the door and walked out, heavy footed, looking at his feet, his muzzle wet from the tears. Sonic let him past and closed the door behind him. As he did so, he glanced at the pillow where the shape of Tails' head had been imprinted. It was soaked. _Wow, I've... only seem him like this once..._ Sonic closed the door and followed Tails down the stairs. He couldn't help but feel pity for the poor kit as he watched Tails climb down the stairs. He followed him down, wondering if the fox would lighten up some time soon.

The two of them entered the living room and sat down at the table.  
'So Shadow, are you gonna explain to us now?' Sonic asked as he took a seat next to his distraught brother.  
'Alright. You better be listening carefully, because I'm not repeating it. Now, I don't know much, but I know enough to tell me that this creature that's possessing Tails is dangerous to us all.' Tails shifted position, getting more uncomfortable by the second by the depression, along with the bad news. 'What I do know is it grows more powerful as you use it more often, as well as it feeds from emotions. So right now, it would be getting pretty powerful.'  
'Just... Just tell me how t-to get rid of it' Tails stuttered. He didn't want this burden any more. It had brought him nothing but grief and he just wanted this whole affair ended. Shadow nodded, understanding what the fox wanted, even if he didn't show it.  
'You need to go to somewhere, but I don't know where.' Tails whined, scrunched up his face and slumped his head on Sonic's shoulder next to him. Meanwhile, Amy sat at the end of the table, looking around and wondering what everyone was going on about. She didn't want to be rude, so she said nothing. 'Do you know anywhere you might need to go to Tails?' Shadow added. Tails continued to lay on the cobalt fur that felt unusually softer than usual to him, but his face relaxed as he tried to think. Sonic put his arm around the poor kit's shoulder, trying to comfort him. For a whole minute, Tails sat thinking and not a sound could be heard except the rain outside.

A minute passed and everyone began to think that Tails had fallen asleep or passed out. His sobs had calmed down, but he still gave the odd one every now and then. Just as Sonic was about to check he was still there, Tails shook his head.  
'N-no... Sorry Sh-Shadow... I don't,' Tails said between sobs. Shadow sighed. He had hoped that Tails could have shed some light on the situation, but he clearly thought wrong. Sonic, meanwhile, was comforting Tails by gently scratching him behind the ear. He felt on the edge of tears himself as he watched Tails continue to cry on his shoulder, flattening and dampening his fur.  
'I think we should leave him alone for now Shadow,' Sonic explained, trying to keep his little brother from becoming any more stressed. 'No more questions until he's ready.' Shadow nodded, understanding fully why this precaution had to be taken. Sonic picked Tails up in his arms and carried him back to his room. _He's suffered enough, he shouldn't have to go through all of this. Poor thing._ Tails curled his arms around Sonic's neck.

Sonic kicked open the bed room door and lay Tails down on the bed. As he pulled away, something tugged at his neck. He looked to find that Tails was refusing to let go.  
'Tails, you need to let go.' He gently tugged at Tails' arms and, as if in response, Tails let go and slunk onto his bed. Sonic left him to it, not wanting to disturb him further.

Tails tried to think clearly. Specifically on what the 'dream' he had had last night. He thought it was somehow linked as to what he had to do. _I remember flying with Chuck... then everything changed.. then... _He rolled on his side and curled up into a foetal position, tails curled up over his head. _What did it change to? _He tried to think as hard as he possibly could. But the emotional pain was too great. He couldn't handle it. He wished this whole affair would just disappear, or just start from the beginning and right his wrongs. Only he would go a bit further back than his birthday given the chance. A lot further back. He remembered the crater that still sat in front of his house, the amount of trouble that the thing that had created it had caused.

Then Tails sat bolt upright. _Wait a minute... crater... crate... Crateméro's! What if Crateméro's Gorge is where I need to go! _Tails remembered the news he had seen earlier that morning. '_Something has been found underneath the gorge.' Could it be where I need __to go? _Tails tried as hard as he possibly could to try to remember this so-called dream, or nightmare, or whatever it was, that he had supposedly had. But he couldn't remember at all. The one thing that could help stop his suffering just wouldn't return. He wiped one last tear from his eye as he begun to form a plan of action.

* * *

'But if you knew about all of this Shadow, then why didn't you tell us sooner?! And why did you attack us earlier?!' Sonic shouted across the table, slamming his fist on the surface. He had clearly lost it with Shadow and how unhelpful he was being.  
'Because I didn't know who it had happened to until I figured it out just last night. And I didn't know whether Tails would comply or not. I would of doubted that it was Tails who had been... infected I suppose you could call it... had it not been him who had blown Eggman's base sky high. I have Rouge to thank for getting me out of the base the night before, or I would have gone with it.

'Thee temple I found the information in wasn't even very clear either,' he carried on. 'All it described was a creature that they had created and then banished in to space because it was deemed too dangerous. Then it described that it would land here on Mobius at some point in the future and take someone over and use them to take over the world. It then described how to get rid of it, but not where to go. I was hoping that Tails already knew, but it seems that I was wrong.' Sonic relaxed as he realised that his outburst was unnecessary and more importantly unhelpful.

After a few moments, Sonic asked 'what else can it do?'  
'It gives its host unnatural strength, repair body parts at an alarming rate and the ability to teleport. It also feeds off of emotions, both past and present, so the more emotional its host is, the more powerful it becomes and the more painful it is to bear it. Put it simply, by the end of the week, your 'little brother' would be writhing in constant pain because it would be so powerful, considering a life like his.' The thought of Tails in so much agony for so long was more than enough to convince Sonic that something had to be done. Fast. 'Oh, and bring the end to us all.'

* * *

Tails now knew what he had to do. He was positive that it was what he was meant to do. If it wasn't, then he would be stuck with this curse for ever, unless there was another way to get rid of it. But he wasn't going to tell anyone. It was something he had to do alone, or not at all. Not just for himself, not just for Artemis, not just for Sonic, but everyone. In more ways than one, even if he wasn't aware of it. His plan was to leave in the middle of the night and take the Tornado to the gorge. He would then look for this thing that had been uncovered and do what he needed to do. Tails rubbed his bloodshot eyes to clear them of tears as he heard shouting from below. He opened his door to listen and stood at the top of the stairs to listen to the conversation below.

* * *

'JUST TELL US SHADOW!' Sonic bellowed. He had once again lost it with Shadow in just a few minutes. 'Just tell us how to get rid of it!' Shadow had kept saying that he would explain how to when they got to wherever they needed to go. Shadow sighed as Sonic's temper continued to rise, while Amy just sat back, not wanting to get in the way. She had never seen Sonic get this angry, so getting in the way could have dire consequences. Shadow sat with his arms crossed as usual.  
'Fine. You need to go to some sort of temple with a Chaos Emerald, but I don't know where it is. It just said you need to put it on a pedestal that will be inside. After that, I think that's it. Something had damaged the rest of that part of the text, so I'm not altogether sure.' Sonic sighed as he sat back down. He was angry partly for still not having the whole answer, but mostly because Tails' life is in jeopardy and Shadow doesn't really seem to care. The only reason he didn't lunge at Shadow now was because he knew he would later regret it.

Tails took in all of the information he had just heard. Now that he knew what to do, he just needed to do it. And by the sounds of things, it would be easy. There was no way he could fail. Put the Chaos Emerald on a pedestal, let the thing leave and job done. Couldn't be simpler, could it?

Tails decided that making preparations now would save doing them later and at the last second. The first thing he had to do was get a Chaos Emerald. _Well that's easy, Sonic always puts them under his bed when we're not using them._ Tails turned to face Sonic's bedroom. He checked that no one would be coming upstairs while he carried out his plans. After feeling positive that no one would be coming, he opened the door that led to the hedgehog's sleeping quarters. He walked over to one side of the bed. As he did so, he glanced at the bedside table, remembering the prank that had gone horribly wrong. Had he not carried out the plan, he would never have stayed awake until the middle of the night; he would have never seen the meteor strike and become so curious as to check it out; he wouldn't even be standing here, thinking these thoughts, if he hadn't thought that getting even was a good thing in some cases. _Never again... I won't do it ever again, no matter what. _Tails' lip trembled slightly as he bent low so he could see under the bed. As expected, the blue and white Chaos Emeralds glowed softly. _Wait, where's the green – oh yeah, it's still in the Typhoon. I guess I could pick it up while I'm there, unless Eggman already has it. Which is almost certain. _Tails reached underneath and grabbed the first one he came in contact with – the white one. He pulled it out and tucked it in his tail, checking it was secure before dashing back to his bedroom.

* * *

Sonic sat in the living room with one hand on his forehead as he stared blankly at the floor. _If only we knew where to go, we could save him. There's no way I'll let him go through something like that. Surely __someone__ must have found out where to go? _Everyone else sat in silence, Shadow in his usual pose of indifference. Amy just watched the distraught blue hedgehog as he tried to think things through. Amy decided to try to be helpful and deliver the uneaten breakfast to the even more disturbed fox upstairs. _It can't be good for either of them_ she thought to herself as she turned on the microwave. She watched as the cold plate of beans on toast rotated in the lighted microwave as they begun to reheat. _The both of them are heart-broken... Wish there was something I could do. _Amy switched off the microwave and checked the temperature of the plate before removing it. She withdrew a fork from a near by drawer, as well as a kitchen towel in case Tails wanted it propped on one. It was hard for her to believe that it was only midday, looking at how much had already happened today. Amy left the quiet living and climbed the stairs towards Tails' room, careful not to let the beans run off the side of the plate. When she reached Tails' bedroom, she kicked the door three times in an attempt to knock while her hands were full.

Tails slipped the Chaos Emerald under his pillow for safe keeping as he heard the knocking at his door, making him jump at the unexpected sound. He quickly regained his bearings and straightened up. Then he remembered he was still supposed to be upset, so he changed his expression to that of one of despair. Once he was happy (or sad rather), he answered the door to the awaiting hedgehog with the steaming plate, fork and towel in her hands.  
'Umm... I just thought you... were hungry so I... brought you your breakfast... if you still want it.' Amy was clearly concerned for him and Tails' heart made a leap for his throat as he looked into the eyes of the concerned pink hedgehog. She normally only felt this way for Sonic, so either this was also affecting Sonic, or she was genuinely concerned – but it was most likely the second theory. The moment felt somewhat awkward. Tails sniffed before responding.  
'Umm... Thanks Amy.' Tails took the plate, towel and fork. After that, the two stood there in the awkward silence as Amy tried to think of something helpful to say. When nothing sprung to mind, she merely said 'Umm... Might wanna eat before it gets cold. Umm... See yah.' With that, Amy walked off feeling utterly helpless as she descended the staircase. Tails blinked as he tried to make sense of what had just happened. He slowly closed his door as the pink fur disappeared behind the wall and sat down on his bed. He rested the towel on his lap, with the plate on top of that. The smell reminded him of the massive hunger pains he had received earlier as they came flooding back to him. This brought him to his senses and he begun to eat the beans and toast in the tranquil silence of his room.

* * *

The day seemed to snail on. Had it gone any slower, it would have been going backwards according to Sonic. Sonic and Tails sat in the living room, watching the evening news. Tails sat with his legs propped underneath him and tails overlapping them. He had now lightened up and was in a much more joyous mood and had finally discussed with Sonic what the problem had been, and, naturally, Sonic comforted him until he was his light-hearted self again.

Amy and Shadow had long since departed. Shadow had gone to look for more information, while Amy had gone home, feeling too useless to stay any longer. The news was talking about the events earlier that had caused wide-spread panic.  
'...So it seems as though that Sonic's supposed 'death' is nothing but a hoax,' the male wolf said. 'So there is no reason to be alarmed people.' The camera turned to the female squirrel as she begun to report another story.  
'In other news, astronomers have predicted a meteor shower that passes over every fifty years is going to come in sight later tonight. Anyone wanting to watch this spectacular event better stock up on energy, since it's around midnight that it will take place.

'So that's all from us for today, we'll see you tomorrow, goodbye!' the news ended there with a friendly smile from both reporters as the lights dimmed and the cameras zoomed out, before going to the commercials.  
'I guess you'll be wanting to see that meteor shower then Tails?' Sonic asked as the advert for a new sitcom came up. Tails shuddered at the very thought.  
'I think I've had enough of meteors to last me a life time or two.' He was referring to more than one incident. Although he had got over Cosmo's death, thoughts of crucial moments between them still upset him a little, and since it was in a meteor shower that Cosmo had come crashing down, resulting in them first meeting, it still made his stomach churn slightly. The second incident was the more recent meteor striking in front of his house, putting him in this position in the first place. It was, indeed, more than a life's worth of encounters with the rocks. And besides, he was going to be busy tonight. He hoped upon hope that his assumption was correct, or, according to Shadow, he wouldn't be having a pleasant weekend at all. Or a pleasant life at that.


	13. From Beginning to End

Drawing near to the end of this story DX (cries). Ah well, all good things must come to an end. Warning: there is a bit of ranting in this chapter, but it's where are the clues come in.

During a writer's block, I decided to look for some Tails tributes on Youtube. One of them had Crush 40's version of 'His World' as the song. And what's the lyrics just before the chorus? 'The power lives inside of you.' Hmm... Remind you of anything? (Looks down at the fanfic).

Disclaimer: There is a reason this is a fanfic – it is written by a fan. That normally means that they are not a part of the actual thing themselves. So why must I put this if you know I don't own any of the characters except Arty and what's-his-face (he has got a name, you'll find it out in this chapter – this is where some of the clues come in!). Read, review and enjoy this 10,000+ word chapter!

* * *

Chapter 13: From Beginning to End

The rain had only stopped a few minutes ago, but the dark clouds threatened to start again. The night lay silent as everyone slept in their beds. Well, almost everyone.

Sonic sat in the living room, unable to get any sleep. He was too worried about the snoozing fox upstairs. _If Shadow's telling the truth... _He sat with his head in his hands and elbows on knees, trying to think of what was best to do. _No idea where to go... And what's coming up next for him._ His arms began to tremble as he thought of what was in store for Tails. What's more, he couldn't bring himself to tell him. No matter how hard he tried to get the words out, they always seemed to fail half way there. It was something he just couldn't do. To tell Tails that he had to experience an agonising unbearable pain until they could find out where to go was the hardest thing he had ever had to do. He would sooner go for another round with the E-99, while it still had all seven Chaos Emeralds than break the bad news to the clueless kit. It was hard, knowing what Tails had in store for him, while Tails would be clueless when it came.

Unbeknownst to Sonic, Tails was sitting on the side of his bed, reading and re-reading the note he was going to leave for Sonic. His plan was to wait until Sonic would leave to take a run to think. He immediately seen the flaw in this as he was working only on chance, but he had a gut feeling that it would happen, since running is what Sonic does when he thinks his best. During that slot of time, he would slip into the hangar and head towards Crateméro's Gorge. He already knew about what would happen to him by the end of the week, so with this in mind, mixed with everything he blamed this for, he was determined to get rid of it. He just hoped that his theory on where to go was correct. He knew running on chance was going into very deep water.

While he was thinking about this, he remembered one time when Sonic was nearly killed on the Space Colony Ark because Sonic had wanted to test out Tails' replication of a Chaos Emerald in the hope that he could trick Eggman. Sonic had really pushed himself to the limit that time – had the fake Chaos Emerald not had the same energy as the real ones, he would have never caused Chaos Control and would have been blown up in space. Tails had pleaded to Sonic to never try anything like that again. Tails sighed. _I guess this is a bit hypocritical... About to do something with no idea what the __consequences are, and not even letting anyone know. _He re-read the note one final time before finally setting it on his bed-side table. He wasn't sure what time Sonic would read it, but he knew he would be long gone by then.

Just as he thought this, he heard the front door open and close. He went to the landing at the top of the stairs to check that it was Sonic that had left and not a late-night visitor (even though no one visited at midnight anyway). Slowly and silently he went down the stairs, skipping the squeaky one. Once he had a clear view of the living room, he gave it a quick scan, making sure that Sonic had really left. He couldn't see much as Sonic must have switched the lights off before departing, but this just helped him clarify that Sonic had gone off. Tails then checked that the Chaos Emerald was still in his tails. Once he was happy, he headed into the hangar. Instead of picking the X-Tornado however, he headed towards the Tornado 2. He felt like that it would be a nice thing to do, to have the wind blowing across his face again as he travelled the night sky. _I haven't used this in a while _he thought as he run his hand across the surface. A thin layer of dust stained the white glove. He brushed it off on his leg before climbing and strapping in to the old bi-plane. He had nearly forgotten the control scheme as he had grown so accustomed to the powerful jet fighter that's twice the Tornado 2's size. It would take a quick fly around before becoming re-accustomed. The speed was also something he would have to grow used to.

He powered up the engines and the propellers mounted on the front sprung to life and began to rotate at a vastly increasing speed. Once Tails had familiarised himself with the controls, he pushed the single joystick forward and the Tornado 2 made its way down the hangar towards the runway. As the fake palm trees parted, he picked up speed as he began to race down the runway. Once he felt he had gained enough speed, he pulled back the joystick, launching him into the air. He swivelled round to face the direction of the gorge as he glided through the night sky. The wind rushed across his face as he glided over the forest that smothered most of Angel Falls. It felt good to go old school to him.

* * *

Sonic raced through the dark meadows of Angel Falls, trying to clear his mind. The last thing he wanted to be doing was to worry too much. He didn't know where he was going, or where he was going to stop, but all he knew was run.

_Where do we need to go? Couldn't that temple that Shadow had went to have left any clues? Or is he holding them back? Wait, no. He wouldn't go through the trouble of asking Tails if he already knew. He would've come up front about it. _Sonic continued to run through the open meadows, not going anywhere in particular, so long as he remembered the route back home. _But what if he's under Eggman's orders? Hmm... No. He remembers me and Tails, so he hasn't lost his memory. But what if Eggman told him, so he could lead us in to a trap? No, Eggman's too irrational to set up something like this, and he knows Shadow could beat me in a fair fight, he would've just told him to fight me directly._

_Now, what to do with Tails? We don't know where to go. Added to that, he's broken down big time over letting down his little brother. _Sonic suddenly stopped as he thought something else. _That reminds me, I better go check on him in case he's cried so much that his eyes have disappeared, or he's having nightmares or... something like that. _Sonic turned on the spot and headed back to the house at an equal speed as to what he arrived with in the first place.

* * *

The wind rushed across Tails' face as he flew high in the skies. The wind made waving patterns in his fur as the open cockpit allowed the air to race across his body. It felt calm and relaxing to feel this cold-to-the-touch feeling once again, rather than the sometimes boiling hot space of the X-Tornado. He looked over the edge of the cockpit at the expansive, winding path of Daetron's Canyon, lined by the equally never-ending stretch of trees around the sides. He was looking for any sign of the Blue Typhoon, or some sort of signs destruction. Any of these would tell him that that's where the gorge would be. He didn't have a navigational computer built in to the Tornado-2 yet since he hadn't used it in such a long time, so he had to rely on what he would suspect the wreckage would look like, due to he didn't see any images on that morning's news report. Eggman had seen to that, whether he knew it or not. Tails thought about the ending of his note, wondering why he had ended it the way he had.

After a minute or so of boredom and keeping an eye out for anything hinting towards the Gorge's location, the hull of the Blue Typhoon finally appeared over the tree tops. Tails smiled as he took control of the Tornado 2 and dived down for a landing. Despite the Typhoon had torn up most of the ground, there was a thin strip running along the side of the great Canyon's edge. Tails smiled at himself, looking at the challenge. _Time to really test my landing. There rarely ever is a challenge anymore. _Tails pushed the joystick forward, putting him and the Tornado in to a straight nose dive. The wind blasted across his face at full force, making his eyes water and they were whipped away by the wind as the ground came to meet him at an incredible speed. Of course, he was used to going much faster, so the only thing that would contribute to a mistake was his blurring vision as the wind continued to batter his eyes. But he had handled more than this before.

The spot he was trying to land on was literally on the edge of the Gorge. Just the slightest miscalculation would have the landing gear either over the edge, sending him spiralling to the rocky pit of what's left. On the right side, the muddy rubble that still remained left barely enough space for the bi-plane, so if the landing gear clipped the rubble, it could cause the same effect. This challenge didn't hinder his efforts, but actually stirred him on for the thrills – something he didn't normally do, but he was thrilled to do it nonetheless. From what he could see, he was at the right height to pull up – with just ten feet from the ground. He jolted the joystick back with force, pulling up the small bi-plane just about level with the ground.

The landing was flawless. The left wheel skimmed the edge of the Canyon as he started to slow down. Passing the Blue Typhoon, the only obstacle that remained was the mud that its crash had thrown up in its wake. The wing skimmed over the top, while the right wheel was barely touching the mud itself. Occasionally, a lump of mud that was still sodden from the rain earlier would be crushed under the wheels. As Tails slowed to a final halt, he switched off the engines, letting the plane's momentum carry him forward, but still keeping in check that the plane didn't wobble to one side.

* * *

'Tails?' Sonic called as he opened the front door and peered around it. He hadn't expected the fox to be awake, as all of the lights in the house were still off. Sonic had no need to switch them back on as he knew exactly what the living room, as well as the rest of the house, looked like from top to bottom, allowing him to navigate the house without fear of bumping in to something, provided there was nothing out of place.

He headed up the stairs, to check on Tails before heading to bed. As he opened the fox's bedroom door, he whispered 'Tails? You awake?' He didn't expect a response, and not being able to see anything in the darkness masked the fox's physique except the sheets seemed to raise up slightly as if someone was there. So he walked to the side of the bed and felt the covers to shake the sleeping Tails.

His hand pushed down the empty sheets until they touched the mattress underneath. Confused and suddenly terrified, Sonic rushed over to the light switch and flicked them on. The sudden burst of lights temporarily blinded him as his eyes had long since adjusted to the darkness. Once he regained his vision, he looked around for any sign of Tails. When a sheet of paper on the bedside table caught his eye. Propped up on the lamp and folded in to a square, the small object sent fear and pain coursing through Sonic's body. Although he had only seen it in television shows and movies, he took a guess at what it said. Just to be sure, he reached over, picked up the paper and unfolded it as his lip began to tremble. It read:

_Dear Sonic,_

_If you're reading this, then I've gone off to hopefully make everything better. I don't know when I'll come back, so it could be a while. If you really want to help me, then I've gone to Crateméro's Gorge. But this is something I think I need to do alone, so please don't come after me unless you really feel like you need to._

_I overheard your conversation with Shadow. I heard about the part where I would be suffering a lot, so if you weren't telling me because you couldn't do it, then you don't need to worry. And in case you're wondering, I forgive you for it. I wouldn't be able to do it myself, so I would be a bit of a hypocrite in telling you off for not telling me. I suppose it would be very hard to tell your best friend that he's doomed to a life of torture. I figured that Crateméro's Gorge was the place to go because, in it's name, there's the word 'Crater'. I kind of thought of the meteor that struck in front of the house and the crater it left. I'm probably wrong, but it's our only lead to getting rid of whatever I have. I went alone because this is something I need to do. I've upset too many people because of it. Artemis, for instance. And in a sense, Amy. And everyone else. If it wasn't for this thing, I wouldn't have blown up Eggman's base, so we would never have fought at the gorge and everyone presumed us dead, so Amy wouldn't have gone berserk when she found out and no one would have stayed at home in fear of Eggman invading the streets. Another reason I want to do this alone is I need to learn to do things for myself more and take control of my life. When Shadow first attacked me, I realised that you can't always be there for me since you were too busy with Amy so I had to fight for myself, so I thought to myself that I need to learn to take care of myself as well as others, rather than letting you do that for me._

_And I guess I should apologise while I have the chance. Remember that night, when I was attacked by the demon, or whatever it is? I didn't stay awake because I couldn't get to sleep. I stayed awake so I could pay you back for the hand in the bowl prank on the night before we went to see my father at the Conference. If it wasn't for me being so foolish and trying to get you back for it, you wouldn't be reading this and I wouldn't of written it in the first place. Instead, we would be sitting around, eating dinner, or fighting Eggman, or going on a holiday or doing things we had never done before or... I don't know. But we wouldn't be doing this. Me running off, leaving you to read this and wonder what's happening to me. But I would prefer you wondered than you be at my side. I don't know why though._

_I hope to see you soon when this is all over._

_Yours truly,_

_Miles Prower._

_P.S. Look after Artemis for me while I'm gone. I don't know if I'll be coming back until I find out where I need to go, if I'm not right this time round._

A tear mark was next to the sign off, but Sonic couldn't figure out if it was his own or Tails'. He could feel his eyes swelling up, but he couldn't seem to recall any tears leaving his face. The sign off was the biggest blow to the hedgehog. The fact that Tails had used his real name meant that the fox had predicted something terrible would happen to him. But he didn't seem to mention it in the letter – surely he would have done so? _I need to help him... I'm not gonna lose him now. Or ever, if I can help it. So, it looks like I'm off to the Gorge. It means more water, but that'll be nothing if I lose Tails._ One other part of the letter stuck out to him. _Note to self. Never prank him again. If that's what started this all off, then I need to remember never to do it again._

He set the note back on the table. Re-reading it would only cause him more pain. On his way out, he switched off the lights and rushed down the stairs to the front door and heading down the flight of stairs in front. Taking one last glance at the crater that still remained, thinking of what it had miraculously driven Tails to, he turned in the direction of Daetron's Canyon. The anguish filled him as he blasted away at absolute full speed, well past the sound barrier. The sonic boom shattered the night sky, sending a pulse throughout the leaves of the trees beyond and the trees bended backwards before swaying back to their original position. This, along with the sudden burst of loud noise, sent wildlife scattering around in every direction.

* * *

Tails walked across the edge of the Gorge. A large section of the side had collapsed, blocking the river flow. Water built up like a dam, having no open holes to pass through to the other side. But that wasn't what Tails was interested in. He was looking for some sort of cave or something of the sort. As he scanned the area, a revelation struck him. _That dream that Sonic and Amy said I had had – it must have been another premonition! I remember now! I was looking around here and found the cave._ Tails continued to walk across the edge, now more excited as to the fact he now knew what his target was.

After a few more moments, he spotted a gap in the cliff, where the walls of the Canyon had once stood, but were now strewn across the gorge. Tails twisted his appendages together and flew down towards the entrance. _This is it. The end of this. No more getting angry, no more upsetting people..._

He landed in front of the dark cave and walked in, trying to figure out where everything was. There was no source of light, so Tails took out the Chaos Emerald in a ditch effort. Despite it's low glow, it gave off a surprisingly good amount of light, just managing to show what was where. Stalactites littered the roof, while the occasional stalagmite stuck out from the ground. Tails used what little light he had to navigate through the cave. Now confident that this was the place he needed to go, his heart pounded against his chest as he reached closer to his goal.

After a minute of walking through the seemingly endless tunnel, Tails came to a turn. He followed it round and was dazzled by what he seen. It was a room, with a blue glow that seemed to have no source. The floor was flat and filled with tiles, while the ceiling was dominated by more stalactites. The walls were just as flat as the floor, but still rock. It was amazing that it was still intact – it looked centuries old. A large platform dominated the center, with exactly what Tails as looking for – a pedestal. Directly in the center of the platform.

Tails approached the pedestal with the Emerald still in his hand. His heart continued to batter his ribs as he had no idea what would happen once he placed the Emerald on there. All he hoped is that it did what he desired. He reached the side of the pedestal as the adrenaline continued to pump through his body. With shaking hands, Tails reached out to place the Chaos Emerald on top in the small indent. It fitted perfectly. Tails withdrew his hand and braced himself for something to happen.

* * *

Shadow stood on top of a dead tree, looking over the darkness of Angel Falls. With no leads as to where to go, and no idea on where to find out, he was utterly stumped.

A low boom shattered the night sky and snapped Shadow out of his trance. He looked around for the source, to see a very fast blue blur travelling across the meadows at supersonic speeds. _Sonic... It's the middle of the night, where's he going?_ Shadow had a gut feeling that it had something to do with the investigation he was having, so decided that it would be wise to tail the hedgehog. He jumped down from the treetops and began to race towards the meadows, winding his way through the dense trees.

_

* * *

_

So... what now?

Tails stood motionless as he waited for something dramatic to happen. _Was my theory wrong? Is it somewhere else I need to go to?_ Tails bit his lip. He hadn't expected to be right, but it was so real, with the pedestal that fits the Emerald perfectly. _This place... It might be meant for something else? I wonder what... _As his thoughts trailed off the matter at hand, the Emerald glowed suddenly more brightly. Catching Tails' attention immediately, it brought him back to reality. He watched with enthusiasm as it continued to get brighter and brighter. The Chaos Emerald rose up from the old stone pedestal and began to spin around very quickly as its glow continued to intensify.

After a few seconds, Tails began to feel dizzy, but it wasn't because of the Emerald. Nausea began to take him over and he fell to his knees. A rapidly increasing pain over whelmed him. And it felt like he was being crushed. _Oh no... not again... please!_ He sprawled on the floor as the pain continued to over whelm him, squeezing his body as if he were a sponge being rinsed. This was something he hadn't expected. He squirmed around on the floor as the crushing pain intensified. He knew what was coming next. An event like that was unforgettable. As expected, the surges of white hot electricity pulsed once more throughout his body, adding to the pain. He curled up in to a ball as he tried to make the pain as painless as possible, even if it was no use.

As suddenly as the pain had come though, it stopped. Tails panted as he tried to regain his senses. Looking up at the pedestal he found the reason for this short but violent burst. A purple gas-like substance swirled around the Chaos Emerald. _I... I did it! It's gone! All gone, all over._ The substance began to form a shape next to Tails, leaving him between the pedestal and the creature. When it had finished taking form, it had once again adopted Tails' body. Facing away from him, it looked at its hands as if it had never had them before  
.'So... So now what?' Tails said, still panting. 'Are you just gonna leave? Please. Just... Just leave. You've done enough to my life, so... So just leave us all alone. Go... Go back to where you came from.' Tails had no idea what he was saying, but he just wanted to go home. Although this would take a while. His body was now drained of energy, so he was left lying on the floor.

The creature let out a snicker, which turned into a maniacal laugh. At that, Tails knew that he had done something wrong. Horribly wrong. He had known Eggman long enough to know when he had been double crossed by the enemy. Maniacal laughs were a dead give away.  
'Three... Thousand... Years,' it said in its deep voice as it turned to look at Tails, who was now quickly disintegrating into fear. 'Three thousand years I have waited for this. To walk on the ground once more, to feel the wind. To hear the birds sing as they dominate our skies. I must thank you Tails, for giving me this pleasure. And looking at how pathetic you look now, I can only guess that you have figured out what I really am.

'Allow me to fully introduce myself. Only, I will let you figure it out first. We will start off with my name. Tell me Tails, what was it I told you? Or rather, how you figured out you were to come here?' Tails' voice trembled as he spoke, but he spoke bravely nonetheless.  
'I... Figured out that the word crater... Was in Crateméro's Gorge. I thought of the crater your meteor left behind and... thought of coming here.'  
'Well done, you really are a clever kid,' the creature mocked Tails, knowing it was in the right position to do so without harm. But how could it be harmed anyway? 'However,' it continued 'there is just one problem. It wasn't you who figured it out. I told you. I fed it in to your mind, into your subconsciousness, to make it think it were you who thought it, not me telling you. Infact, it was your subconscious that told you to write the end of the letter you wrote to that hedgehog you call a brother. It predicted that, after I had fed it the information, something bad would happen to you. So it told you to say your full name rather than Tails. Anyway, I drew you here, my furry little -'  
'Stop calling me that, or...' Tails blurted out. Even though he was furry, like almost everyone else on Mobius, he still felt it quite insulting.  
'Or what? You're hardly in a position to be making threats to me. You have seen, you have felt and done what I can do. And that's not all of it. I can do so much more. More than you could ever dream of. Your friend, Shadow, is nothing compared to me. He's meant to be the 'Ultimate Life Form' am I correct? Hardly, if what I have learned from you is all he can do.

'So, we carry on with our acquaintance now. In the name 'Crateméro's', you did indeed find out one of the anagrams because of me. Although, I think I'll let you figure out the second. Let's see how smart the boy is, and I may give you a cookie. Presuming that is what you say to little children.' _I'm not... oh, what's the use in arguing, I barely have enough energy to stand. But.. There's a second anagram? _Tails thought through the letters, rearranging them in his head over and over again. _Okay... Teméro... Camto... Oh what's the use there's too many possibilities, I'd be here all night. _'Can I get a clue?' Tails asked. In no fit shape to fight, he would just buy as much time as possible to wait for Sonic to rescue him. He would be eating his own words by going back on what he had said about taking care of himself, but anyone would agree it was the best thing to do.  
'Heh, alright. A 'something' shower is predicted tonight.' Tails knew immediately what it was talking about, but just to be sure, he rearranged the letters. _Metéor. It's definitely there, just take away the accent thing on the e, then you're left with meteor. Why didn't I see it before? _'Meteor. It's meteor. But what's this got to do with your name?' He could see why it had something to do with this unknown being, but no idea what it had to do with his name.  
'All in due course, oh fluffy one.' Tails groaned, but didn't go beyond that. He slowly sat up against the pedestal, making himself more comfortable than lying on the floor. His legs were still shaking however.  
'So, you figured out the anagram. And where exactly is the gorge placed?' This one was easy for Tails.  
'Daetron's Canyon. But – wait.' The glowing yellow eyes watched him patiently as Tails put two and two together. 'Daetron's Canyon was presumed to have been named after someone. Was that someone...?'  
'Me,' it finished off Tails' sentence. 'I am Daetron. The canyon was named after me, in the hope that in the future, the person I took over would figure it out how to get rid of me through the name of the gorge. And go there, to release themselves of me. This was cunningly thought out by my creators, but alas, when they died out, there was no trace of what or where the clues were. Well, almost all of them died.

'I guess I should tell you my history. You have been very helpful, so you deserve something in return. I was created three thousand years ago as a weapon against another ancient race, which they too are almost wiped out. Although they did last longer, they are now almost no more. I was created for the soul purpose to win a war. Although I was given the powers to wipe out thousands in seconds, I was more of a compromise object rather than a weapon of mass destruction. The people that created me were peaceful and did not wish for war. They hit fast and hard, but it wasn't their wish to claim lives for reasons such as disagreements.

'So I was created as a sort of threat. They decided to threaten the opposition with me, threaten them into a peaceful compromise, where both of them could live in harmony without arguments. My creation took several months of rituals and tests to make sure I was obedient and willing to do as I was told. Of course, as you can guess, I didn't. After I found out my true purpose, I discreetly changed. Like you, the people that had created me where smarter than most, so they passed on their intelligence to me. They could not feed me directly through food and drink, so, after much careful thinking, they would take it in turns to allow me to feed from their thoughts and emotions. Not only did this give me my intelligence, but unbeknownst to them, it gave me emotions, something that they had not planned or foreseen. Because of this, I felt emotions that were previously unavailable to me, and the emotions strived me on to decide that I must escape. Because I could remember these emotions and feel them, I could also watch their entire lives, from beginning to end, to find the key emotions that were necessary for power. So fear was a major one to be left out. I could watch and re-watch their entire lives in my head if I wanted to.

'And they could not see through me, could not see what I was plotting in my spare time, alone, in a specially designed cell that would stop me from leaving if I decided that I wanted to without their permission. Although I pretended to do as I was told to, I was also secretly planning my escape. I had the power to dominate the world with ease, so why didn't I do just that? I plotted out everything, hoping it would work. The two tribes were going to a neutral area, where they would exchange their terms and conditions on their alliance. My people were to take me with them, in case they needed to show my powers to them. That was when I decided I would turn on them, when I would break free from that dreaded cell and those continuous tests that seemed to repeat over and over and last for ever.' Tails could almost feel sorry for Daetron. No one, not even beings bent on World Domination deserved that sort of treatment.

'So it came to that day. As expected, they took me with them to the meeting. And, as expected, they asked me to demonstrate my powers on a near by boulder. So I struck everyone in the area. None died, but fatally wounded. I did not want to deal with the stress of killing them at that point. Oh, how wrong I was. They were ready. They did see through me. Like me, they gave the illusion that they were blinded from what the other was thinking. They did know what I was thinking, what I was planning. It turns out that they had made an alliance previously with the other people and had told them of my plans. So they agreed to work together and built this place. In secret, it was constructed in the side of the gorge. They planned out how they would get rid of me. At that time, I was already too powerful to be defeated. So instead, they planned on firing me in to the outer reaches of space in a meteor. They cleverly disguised the name of the gorge as an anagram, in the hope that when I returned in the future, the person I took over would find this place easily and remove me from them before I regained my power, as I said before. The canyon they named after me, as a last ditch effort. In the desert, they built a temple, holding the information. Their language was of course different from today's and therefore, the information was lost. Although, it seems that Shadow managed to translate it.

'As I was saying, they built this room. With the Chaos Emerald's energy flowing through the pedestal, they managed to create a way in removing me from my host. Without me knowing, they made a way that, when I would return, I would have to feed off of the thoughts of somebody else. So they activated this pedestal, connected to a meteor. When I attacked, they only just managed to react fast enough to seal me within it. I wiped out almost the entire civilisation. There was only a few remaining, including the leader. When he placed the Emerald on the pedestal, I was sucked in to the meteor and flung into space until I could return. What's more, I could only fly over every fifty years, along with the meteor shower that would occur at the same time.'

Tails took in everything, from start to finish. He had many burning questions on his mind about the story. 'So... if you were created by an ancient civilisation that had a different language to us, then how do you know how to speak English?'  
'I learned it from you, from your thoughts. I'm a very fast learner, so your modern language was easy for me.'  
'And... you said you didn't know what you are, but you do. Why did you lie?'  
'To try to gain your trust. It is through your mind that I grow stronger. If you closed it off, I would have died. The only reason I didn't die in the meteor is because of a special form of hibernation that kept me alive. The stronger your emotions were, the more I fed, the more I grew stronger. And with a life like yours, it was a gold mine. Nothing but an emotional wreck. The pain from bullying, losing your parents, meeting Sonic and losing Cosmo, not to mention the injuries you suffered and I fixed them, the times you used my teleportation power, my strength – every time you used me added to my growth. All of them contributed to me standing here now. It should have taken me months, like it had last time, to grow this powerful, but it has taken me a matter of days. So again, I must thank you for being so kind as to letting me do so.' Tails couldn't believe it. He had literally fuelled a creature that was going to take over the world.

_I just need to keep stalling, to wait for Sonic. Maybe he can defeat him, save the world once again. _His legs still trembled, along with the rest of his body, reminding him of his next question.  
'A few days ago, the pain I felt a minute ago... I felt it again. Why? And did it have something to do with destroying the house?'  
'It had everything to do with the mess Prower. It was me, connecting to your thoughts and the preliminary feeding to gain enough energy to keep me going. Your life was so full of emotions that fuelled me so well, by the time I got to the happier ones, I was finished. It was not, as you had thought, the happy memories warding me off. It was just coincidental timing. The pain was me entering, and in the case of a minute ago, leaving, your mind. The first time it had happened, I had no idea what was going on myself, but now I realise what it was.'  
'But then... what about the other people you had taken over? Didn't you know from them?' Tails remembered when it had first spoken earlier, saying it had waited three thousand years for him. _What did that mean?  
_'That is the catch, and the biggest blow of all, hindering my plans for a whole three thousand years. I could not just enter any body at my will, or I would have conquered this world long ago. No, I was forced in to taking only one body. For three thousand years, I watched the planet for this one unfortunate person. I did not know how I would recognise him or her, but I knew something would stand out among the rest. I could feel it coming from you, and I knew from that moment that it was you that was singled out. The leader of the tribe picked you, of all people, to be the one that I would take as mine. You were marked throughout time, three thousand years before you were born.' Daetron's long answers were all that Tails needed. They gave him as much time as possible for Sonic to arrive. He just hoped that Daetron did not see this flaw in his monologuing.  
'But why me?'  
'Because you are the direct descendent of the leader. I do not know why he singled you out from the whole of the family tree, but he did do just that. You are the 'heir of the throne' as they call it.'  
'So... That tribe... Were also two-tailed foxes?'  
'He finally realises. Maybe there is hope for you yet, little one,' Tails frowned at the further insults, but was determined to keep the questions going. 'My physique is not based off of you, but the Kitnians' Leader. Coincidentally, he's the same size as you, giving the appearance that I look just like you. Well, almost,' he added, looking at the purple gas and thinking of the glowing yellow eyes that separated him from a look that was socially acceptable.  
'So what was the other civilisation?' Tails asked. _Come on Sonic...  
_'Why, isn't it obvious? What civilisation controlled – no, created the Chaos Emeralds? The Echidnas. Your friend Knuckles is the last of them. Ironic really. Both civilisations asked for a peaceful alliance after waging war, and their descendants turn out to be very close friends with absolutely no idea of what once happened.'  
'What about those that survived, other than the leader? What happened to them?'  
'They died when my meteor was sent in to space. It rose from the ground, sending rocks in every direction, landing on top of them. Minthos, the leader, was the only one that survived.'

Tails was, by now, running out of questions. But there was one more that nagged away at him. 'Why did you take control of my emotions then? What does that have to do with you growing more powerful if you're too busy controlling my life?' Daetron sniggered again at this accusation.  
'Why, my dear Tails, that wasn't me. These 'mood swings' you have been having were your own.' Tails, however, shook his head slowly, growing in speed, his face turning into that of horror. It was unbelievable. So unbelievable, he would be a fool to believe it.  
'No... you're lying... that isn't me, I don't lose control of myself, I don't... I just don't, I can't, I won't... IT WAS YOU, NOT ME!' Tails bellowed with all of his might, but his lack of energy forced him to collapse back on the pedestal behind him. His eyes began to stream steady tears as disbelief continued to flood his mind.  
'You can deny it all you like foxy, but in the end, you know it's true. Your girlfriend, Cosmo, did more to your mind than you think. Your heart isn't so big because of it. It hit you harder than you could ever imagine, nothing even I can do would harm you so much, either mentally or physically. Also, I cannot touch your emotions, I cannot manipulate them, only grow from them. You know full well that your actions in Eggman's base were yours, not mine.

'If you don't believe me, then think back to when you first met your dear father after your birthday. When he told you of what the pain the roboticising had caused him, how it had almost separated your family for good. Then, your anger rose to the point where you did not even back down when you heard the fake thunder clap. That is pure hatred, not manipulation or simply losing control. To not feel fear from so much anger is hard, but not impossible. You were driven to the point of wanting to sink your teeth into his neck, or rip out his throat mercilessly – anything that would cause him pain beyond imagination. And think, had I met you then? No. That was you alone, you alone had burned away your kindness and... what was it that person on Earth called you? A pacifist wasn't it? Yes... You burned it all, threw it aside and left it to rot, just so you could have your revenge, or at least imagine it if you could not make it come true. The same at his base against the robot. You used my strength to show Eggman that you weren't playing with toys any more, but wanting to watch him burn, to watch him go to his grave at long last. And when you blew up the base too – the power used was a bit unnecessary, don't you think? And when you found out you had upset your little brother, don't you think you were over reacting? That anger, that hatred, that lust for absolute revenge is not the work of a demon. Nothing but the loss of your beloved Cosmo.

'But you can use it,' Daetron carried on. _Here we go, manipulation games _Tails thought to himself. Enough time fighting Eggman had taught him when to recognise such events. 'And I can teach you to control it. I am offering you something here Tails, something that no other living being would hear leave my imaginary lips. At the risk of sounding clichéd, will you join me? With you by my side, you could rule this world with me. You could punish those that caused you pain and suffering. The bullies, Doctor Eggman – and anyone else that you choose. You have been a great help to me, which is why I am giving you this once in a lifetime offer. But I suggest' the yellow eyes flared at these words, and the two tails behind Daetron waved around suddenly 'that you make the right decision.' Daetron already knew what the answer was, but he wondered what the fox's response would be anyway. Perhaps Tails would even change his mind and join him.

Tails finally found enough energy to climb to his feet. Slowly he did so, holding on to the pedestal for support. 'I will... Never join you... Revenge isn't everything. I learned that earlier, when I wrote that note to Sonic. And when I make a promise... I keep it. No matter what. Even if I have to suffer... I will keep my promises.' Tails remembered the silent promise he had made to Cosmo, to keep her safe no matter what. He had risked everything to escape from Shadow to keep that promise, but he would much rather do much worse than have the hedgehog chase him than break a promise that he had made to a friend.  
'Very well,' Daetron said after a moment of silence filled only by Tails groaning from the strain. 'Goodbye, my furry little friend. Your life ends here and now.' In a blur, Daetron turned into a floating mist, rather than a physical being. He swarmed towards Tails before he could react, engulfing him in the thick purple smoke. He could feel himself moving, but could see nothing. Then he felt himself being smashed against something, most likely the wall. 'Goodbye Prower. Hope I never see you again.' Daetron had Tails pinned to the wall, hand clenched on his throat. With hardly enough energy to even stand up straight, Tails was helpless against the stranglehold. As Daetron's cold yellow eyes watched, Tails gasped desperately for air. He knew it took much longer than the movies made it out to die from lack of oxygen, but it wouldn't help much. Tails instinctively kicked out at the purple being infront of him, but with no success. Daetron let out his snigger, which was now starting to get on Tails' nerves. On the verge of death, and he's worrying about someone's laugh. He really was losing it.  
'Ahh Tails. You forget what I'm made of, don't you? So long as I know what you are going to do, I can change my shape so all you're hitting is air.'

BANG! A collosal amount of force struck the side of his head, sending him flying in to the wall beside him, relinquishing Tails from the tight grip. He fell to the ground on all fours spluttering and coughing for air. When his heart had stopped hammering him from lack of oxygen, Tails looked up to see his saviour.  
'S-Sonic?' It was indeed Sonic. But he looked different. Changed. His fur had gone a much darker shade of blue and an equally dark aura surrounded him. His eyes were in a V-shape, along with his teeth being bared and fists clenched tightly. Tails had never seen this side of Sonic before. He didn't even think that this side of Sonic even existed. Sure, he was a very juxtapositional character, but he had never gotten so angry as to physically change in all of Tails' memory.  
'You dare harm another hair on Tails, and I'll tear you apart!' Sonic shouted, sending shivers down Tails' spine. _That isn't Sonic..._ Daetron climbed to his feet, looking very disgruntled. Or he would if he had any eyelids or a mouth. A second, deafening bang echoed around the chamber as the sonic boom finally caught up with Sonic. Instinctively, Tails clasped his ears, mistaking it for thunder.  
'This is new...' Daetron said when the effects of the boom had had on Tails had worn off. 'Losing your temper... To the point of physical change. In the three thousand years I have watched this pathetic planet, I have never seen anything like it. And it poses as a new challenge, which I am more than willing to accept.' Sonic didn't make any notion of agreeing, but just glared back with a look that would slice diamond clean in half.

Quicker than Sonic had ever gone before in such a small space, he lunged at Daetron with as much force as he could muster. His foot, however, made contact with the wall as Daetron turned into the floating gas once more and swerving around behind Sonic before returning to his normal shape.  
'You know you can't harm me now that I know when you're going to attack. Back down now and I'll make your death quick and painless.' Not listening to the threat, Sonic withdrew his foot from the wall and begun to swing everything at Daetron. Instead of turning entirely into the gas, he merely just allowed parts of his body to do that. Sonic threw a punch at his head, which blasted apart and quickly reformed. A sweeping kick to try to trip up Daetron just went straight through the feet as they deformed and reformed. He tried a lightning-fast spin dash, but earned a collision with the wall as Daetron allowed him to pass right through him.  
'Are you going to learn Sonic?' Daetron said as he regained the kitsune-like shape. 'You cannot harm me. Give up now and I may just spare you. May.' Sonic fell to the ground and turned to Daetron.  
'Well maybe if you stood still, we wouldn't have this problem, would we?' Sonic retorted menacingly.

'Very well. Let's dance, Sonic the hedgehog.' Daetron and Sonic lunged at each other with incredible speed and clashed with extravagant force. Blow after blow was delivered from both parties. A crushing blow met Daetron's face, scattering his eyes into the air before reforming, but not before Sonic threw an uppercut towards Daetron's arm. He just managed to see this in time and caught the hedgehog's arm. Instead of doing anything fancy with it, he instead jumped over Sonic and used the twin tails as ropes to wrap around Sonic, securing his arms to his body. Daetron reached over his head to grapple Sonic's own. Sonic tried to struggle free, but it was no use. Daetron did an on-the-spot somersault, sending Sonic around with him. As he came down, Daetron landed hard on the hedgehog's back, crushing him against the ground. Sonic had reacted just quickly enough to turn his head to one side, avoiding breaking his nose. But it was still very painful.

Daetron swirled up into a mist and reformed to stand over Sonic. The hedgehog tried to stand up, but his opponent just stamped on him hard between the shoulder blades. Now immobile and in incredible pain, with Tails unable to help him, Sonic was defeated. He couldn't reach round far enough to grab the leg, or any other part of Daetron. And doing so would just cause him to disintegrate in his grasp anyway.  
'You're out of your league here Sonic. Doctor Eggman is child's play compared to me. I was created by some of the most intelligent beings to have ever walked this world, so naturally I am flawless. Eggman may have a high IQ, whatever that is, but it's evident he doesn't use it if it was this easy to beat you.'  
'I don't know who you are.. But you'll never win. Not as long as I'm breathing. And there's someone even better than me that's looking for you too. And that's if I don't beat you first.' Sonic continued to struggle. Although it didn't look much, the position he was in was almost unbreakable.  
'So sorry, I forgot to tell you my name, allow me to introduce myself. I am Daetron. And this other person, is it Shadow? He does seem quite a formidable and resourceful opponent. I will enjoy wiping the floor with him. I thought that I would have done the same for you, but it seems you are much easier than Tails' memories tell me. Instead, I would be wiping you so hard, the floor would be coming with me.' Daetron was clearly one that loved to mock his opponents before and during making them suffer for their actions against him. It's a risky tactic, Sonic knew, as it sometimes angered the opponent to make irrational decisions and either turn the tables in their favour, or ruin their chance of winning. He knew this all too well from taunting Eggman for these past years.

Tails sat watching helplessly. He had only just regained his breath and still couldn't stand up properly. _I need to do something... But what?! I don't... Wait. He mentioned using the Chaos Emerald on the pedestal to lock him in the meteor. But it's in there right now, so why isn't it working? I guess I could try attacking him with it, but will it work? It's our only chance I guess. I just need to..._ Tails tried to stand up, using the wall for support. He looked over at the fight. _Good, no one noticed. Now to get over there without them noticing. Or falling over._

'If you're the second best this world has to offer as an uprising Sonic, then this world would be quite a bore once I take it over. Perhaps I will follow Shadow's advice and head for Earth too. I'm sure this Chris Thorndyke person would be thrilled to know it was you who was my first victim.' Daetron held Sonic in position as he tried to free himself, but with no success. 'This world will be mine. Ad there is nothing you can do to stop me. Seeing as you're going to be a pain by trying to halt my efforts, I think I'll end it before it starts. Say your prayers, hedgehog. Don't worry, I'll make it slow and painful.' With that, one of the tails rose up into the air and struck down like a snake on Sonic's throat. The purple tail wrapped around and engulfed his neck, quickly losing his ability to breathe. Sonic began to writhe, gasping for air. The dark aura disappeared and his fur turned back to its normal cobalt.  
'Sonic!' Tails yelled out in despair, stumbling over as he watched the scene unfold. Daetron looked round at the fox now sprawled on the floor.  
'I think I'll let him die in front of you before killing you.' His clutch on Sonic intensified as Sonic's eyes rolled up into the back of his head. Tails watched in fear, thinking there was nothing he could do. By the time he would be able to get to Daetron to pull him off, Sonic would be dead.

A yellow streak of light sliced clean through Daetron, smashing him in to the wall for the second time. As he disappeared in a cloud of smoke and rubble, three more streaks of yellow light soared from what looked like the roof and disappeared in the smoke as a fresh dose blasted out. _Who..?_ Tails wondered as he watched helplessly at Sonic, spluttering for air like he was not a minute ago.

A thud next to him told him something, or someone, had landed next to him. Tails spun round to see Shadow down on one knee, clutching a second Chaos Emerald in his hand.  
'Shadow... I think you need t-to push the Emerald in him.' Shadow looked at Tails and nodded, understanding the plan. Like Tails, he had no idea whether it would work, but it was worth a try nonetheless. Wasting no time, Shadow delved into the clearing smoke, Emerald outstretched infront of him. To be sent spiralling back out.  
Shadow skidded across the floor, rolling over and over again as Daetron emerged from the debris.  
'So, you're Shadow. You seem as if you know -' Daetron didn't finish his sentence as he had to dodge a spin dash from Sonic. Sonic landed on his feet on the wall, jumping off for another attempt at a kick to the face. At the same time, Shadow got to his feet and attempted the same thing. Predictably, Daetron spiralled into the air in a whirl of purple smoke and Sonic and Shadow collided with each other. The two of the fell to the ground, entangled in each other's arms and legs. Shadow had the urge to yell at Sonic as he pulled away from the dog pile, but seeing the current situation, it was hardly worth it. Sonic climbed to his feet, thinking the same thing, and instead set his mind on the task at hand.

In the blink of an eye, Daetron had disappeared. Everyone, wondering where he had gone to, looked around for him.  
'Sonic, behind you!' Tails yelled. Sonic spun round to come face to face with Daetron, but before he could react at all, one of Daetron's tails reached over his shoulder and extended at a high speed to smash Sonic square in the face. Sonic was sent spiralling across the chamber and skidded across the ground, the back of his head colliding hard on the wall. The sound it made, a dull thud, made Tails jump. He didn't think that something that was usually seen in cartoons could become so real.

Shadow retaliated by throwing his fist, with the Emerald in it, at Daetron. Unfortunately, Daetron's other tail blocked it and quickly engulfed his arm, relinquishing Shadow's grip on the Emerald. Shadow struggled as he tried to release himself, but the gas-like substance snaked across his arm, reaching his elbow and now heading for his shoulder. As it did so, the grip strengthened, crushing his arm. _Alright, think. Think! Wait, that's it!_ Shadow quickly realised what he had to do.

A large yellow blast emitted from inside the tail, rupturing it instantly. The shock wave knocked the Chaos Emerald on the pedestal flying towards Tails, landing infront of him as he tried to stand up again. _Ooh, lucky me! _Tails nabbed the Emerald and continued to try to stand up. _Now to try my theory out. I just hope it works._

Daetron stumbled back from the shock wave as he tried to reform his tail.  
'You are going to be fun,' he complimented the hedgehog, who took no notice and instead went straight into a chaos strike. His fist a yellow ball of light, he soard towards Daetron, who disappeared once more and Shadow made impact with one of the previous craters in the wall, causing a small amount of stalactites to fall from the ceiling. They crashed around the occupants, splattering across the floor. Luckily, only two or three actually fell, nowhere near anyone, leaving no one injured. Shadow withdrew his hand, looking around for Daetron. _Where is – _He felt a sudden sharp pain in the back of his head before being picked up and hurled to one side, landing next to Sonic. He, like the hedgehog next to him, lay unconscious.

Tails looked at Daetron in fear as he stared back with those menacingly yellow eyes.  
'You know you've lost. You know that there is nothing you can do. Just curl up in the corner while I take care of these two, why don't you? These are the last moments of your life, so I suggest you do something useful with them by staying out of the way.' _Oh, I'll do something helpful alright_ Tails thought to himself as a plan formed in his mind. He relied on the Emerald theory to work, or not only would he be defeated, but Sonic would be killed infront of him, followed by Shadow, and then himself. And then most likely the rest of the world. Not a pleasant thought to die with. Tails stood where he was as Daetron walked by. They exchanged a look of hatred, but did nothing.  
'Good boy, you've made at least one good decision today, other than releasing me.' And that's what sparked him off. All of the anger came flooding back to Tails as he watched Daetron advance on the near lifeless hedgehogs. The past week's events flooded him like a broken dam. As he watched Daetron's tails strike down on the hedgehogs, his grip on the Chaos Emerald tightened and its glow intensified, as if it were reacting with his anger.

Without giving it a second thought, Tails lunged at the unsuspecting Daetron with as much force as he could muster, wanting to release all of his anger in this single blow. Chaos Emerald outstretched infront of him, he slammed into Daetron's back, forcing him spread-eagled against the wall, face planted in it and tails no longer touching the hedgehogs. The Emerald sunk into his back as Tails pushed it in as hard as he could with an electrifying sound. Even though it had already gone in, Tails carried on pushing, eyes tightly closed, waiting for something to happen.  
'You will regret that Prower...' Tails opened his eye, fearing that his plan had not worked and that everything had gone down the drain. 'When I return, I will strike you with so much force, I won't need your pathetic life to live off. It will be from sheer strength alone. Argh!'

His plan had worked. It seemed as though Daetron was being sucked in to a vortex as his body was whisked away in the wind, the purple gas-like substance swirling around the pedestal with increasing speeds. Tails watched as he fell to his knees, glad this whole thing was finally over. The gas swirled into the air to the ceiling before being sucked back down into the pedestal and disappeared instantly. The Chaos Emerald lay at Tails' side. Picking it up, he rushed over to Sonic and Shadow immediately.  
'Sonic? Sonic! Wake up!' He shook his brother's shoulders, trying to wake him up. There was no way he could carry both of them – he barely had enough strength to carry one, let alone himself. His legs were still shaking whenever he stood up, so lying on his knees was as far as he wanted to go. 'Sonic... Shadow... C'mon...' Tails sat back on his arms, legs and tails out infront of him, no idea what to do. He couldn't get either hedgehog to get up, leaving him helpless until one of them decided nap time was over.

BANG! Tails jumped as a stalactite landed directly between his tails, embedding itself in the floor. He scrounged backwards in shock, looking up at the ceiling to see what was going on. The ground began to shake and more stalactites fell from above, either spearing themselves into the floor, or breaking apart and scattering everywhere. One of the larger stone spikes split down the middle of the pedestal, sending even more bits flying in every direction. Tails covered his head as he rushed to the sides of the hedgehogs. _C'mon wake up! WAKE UP!_ Tails panicked, frantically trying to figure out what he should do. Then it struck him. _Chaos control... I need to, or all three of us are through. _Tails grabbed the second Chaos Emerald in his free hand and placed one on either hedgehog. He tried to think of a safe spot outside, trying to make it as close as possible. He didn't dare try to go very far. 'Chaos control!' Tails yelled at the top of his lungs. The trio disappeared in a flash of blue just as a large boulder crushed their spot. The room continued to collapse on itself as the miniature earthquake carried on.

Tails landed on the side of Daetron's Canyon, next to the Tornado-2. _This should be far enough.  
_'Urgh...' a voice said behind Tails. He spun round to see Sonic had come round, clutching his head. That reminded Tails of the bone-chilling thud it had caused on collision with the wall. 'Wha...?' Sonic said as he looked around bleakly at his surroundings. Before he could figure out where he was, Tails had wrapped himself around Sonic's throat, shivering from the amount of adrenaline coursing through his body.  
'S-Sonic... We did it...' Tails said, sobbing into his shoulder. Sonic patted him on the back.  
'It's okay Tails... It's over... It's... whoa' Sonic's world continued to spin around him. He was surprised that the impact hadn't caused a concussion. Tails continued to shake as he sobbed into his shoulder. Shadow begun to come round too.  
'It's okay Tails, it's okay,' Sonic said as he tried to comfort the distraught fox. _How'd we get out here anyway?_ Sonic thought to himself. Tails' clutch around his neck loosened, but he began to shake more violently. Bewildered, Sonic looked at Tails' feet, to find both emeralds lying there. Then it struck him.

Sonic quickly lay Tails on the ground to see the eyes normally full of life staring straight back at him, unable to move. His whole body was as rigid as a board. Sonic, remembering the last incident, nabbed both Chaos Emeralds. It was a good thing that this time, he knew exactly what to do instead of guessing. Placing both Emeralds on the white fur on Tails' chest, he concentrated on releasing the energy that the fox's body was desperately trying to release. The Chaos Emeralds gracefully worked their magic, as spouts of yellow energy began to erupt from Tails' body, being blown away in the wind as it did so. Tails' body began to slow down, relaxing. Shadow watched silently, wondering what exactly was going on, but daring not to ask, seeing it as an irrelevant piece of information.

The process only lasted a couple of unenjoyable seconds. Sonic's head was still spinning, but it was stable enough to be able to look at Tails without veering off to one side. He looked into the fox's eyes wondering if he would pull back to reality. Tails suddenly took in a deep breath as he was brought back to life. Sonic knew he was in need of medical attention now, but it wasn't so serious as to need to blast off faster than sound to get him to the nearest hospital.  
'Thanks Sonic' Tails said in a croaky voice, smiling up at his big brother, who smiled back. Sonic rested Tails' head in his lap to keep him comfortable for the time being. 'Hey look,' Tails said. 'It's the meteor shower.' Everyone looked up to see streaks of light shoot across the night sky, which was now mostly cleared of clouds that had drifted along with the wind.

A deafening boom suddenly echoed throughout the Canyon's plains. Everyone looked for the source to find that Crateméro's Gorge had been blown to pieces by a giant black meteor as it soared upwards to meet with the other meteors. Shadow, thinking ahead, unclipped his golden restrainers to unleash his full power. Taking a running jump, he turned into one large streak of the golden Chaos energy, on a collision course with the meteor that held the monstrosity of Daetron.

He sliced through like a knife on butter. The meteor was blasted apart in the sky. The debris joined with that of the gorge below as large and small clumps of rock fell from the wreckage. Shadow wheeled round and landed soundlessly next to the restrainers before clipping them back on. He nodded at Sonic, who, although bewildered by the gesture, nodded back.  
'We should get Tails to the hospital,' Sonic said as he looked down at the immobile kit on his lap.  
'Wait, I wanna watch this first,' Tails said abruptly. Sonic chuckled. _And I thought he had seen enough of these things to last him a lifetime. Guess he's eating his words._

* * *

The meteors came and went after what seemed about half an hour. No one knew for sure as none of them had a watch. Sonic picked up Tails and cradled him like a baby, seeing as it was probably the most comfortable position. They could have used Chaos Control with Shadow, but they decided against it, partly so Sonic could run (seeing has he had fully regained stability), partly because Tails couldn't trust Chaos Control that much anymore, but mostly because it was one of those times where you wanted to make the journey last for no reason in particular. As Sonic sprinted towards the city with Tails in his arms, the tired out fox had fallen asleep. His peaceful face was an unforgettable one, one that would always stick in your mind no matter where you went.

* * *

After many nights of staying up until 3 o'clock in the morning and usually beyond, I have finally completed this. I hope you're happy. :) (in case you haven't realised, this isn't the ending chapter :P One more to go!)


	14. Back to normal

Officially the end :( Pretty short chapter, the only one that's smaller than it is chapter 3, but it is a good ending in my opinion. Better hand out my thanks now :P. First of all, thanks to all of the reviewers (whether they reviewed once or pretty much every time, you're still on here!) who are Tailsisreal, Razor Da Hedgehog (again, Oscar award for the shortest review I've ever seen 'O.O OH NO!') Kitsune-Awesomeness, shadow zombie, Lloyd Redgrave, Teen preecher, Itman496 and james. A special thanks to Tailsisreal for the billions of hints and tips you've given me. :) Also, just for the hell of it, thanks to Sega and the Sonic Team for creating the Sonic franchise in the first place, revolutionising the world of gaming for ever. I highly doubt anyone from Sega is actually reading this, but I'm thanking them anyway.

Disclaimer: The last time I need to write this for now. In future fanfics, I'm just gonna write it in the first chapter and that's it. Saves both you and me from having to whine about who does and doesn't own what. Sonic, Tails and everyone else is not mine, they are all Sega's. Amadeus and Rosemary are from the Archie comics so I don't own them two either, although I did change Amadeus' job slightly. Artemis is, and shall remain, mine. :) So is Daetron, although it's not really a problem right now since what's left of him is currently strewn across Crateméro's Gorge so... yeah.

* * *

Chapter 14: Back to normal

The morning Sun shone through the slightly ajar window, flooding the room in its warmth and light. Tails sat in his bed in the hospital room, the same one he had been in when he had been ran over. His right hand was bandaged with the intravenous line in the back of his hand once again. He still couldn't get the thought of the last time it had been used earlier that week, what it felt like to go down his arm. He sat propped up, eating a bowl of cereal for breakfast and at the same time looking for information using a laptop and the television hanging from the wall, with the morning news on. And, of course, awaiting Sonic's arrival. _Urgh, why d_oes _hospital food always taste like this? It's disgusting!_ Tails cringed at every mouthful, but seeing as he had no choice but to eat it since there was nothing else, he had to live through every painstaking moment. _And for a full week too. Great_

The door suddenly slid open to reveal Sonic. Although he looked slightly tired, he was wide awake, with a packet in his hand that he knew would keep Tails happy while he was here. Tails gulped down the mouthful of horrible breakfast before saying 'Hey Sonic!'  
'Mornin' Tails. How're ya feelin'? Sonic asked, handing Tails the packet. His face lit up as he recognised it as a packet of mints. Putting what was left of the cereal on the table and tearing open the top of the blue packet, he popped one of the white pearl-like mints in his mouth and relaxed as the taste destroyed that of the horrid breakfast cereal he had been served.  
'Much better now I have these, thanks.' Sonic and Tails both chuckled.

For most of the first hour, the two of them discussed what had happened last night. More specifically, what Tails had found out. That he was the direct heir of an ancient civilisation, that they had once waged war with the Echidnas, all they way down to the real reason why he had been so emotionally distressed recently. Tails thought that Sonic would be angry or upset, but it turned out he understood entirely. He couldn't really blame him – losing someone so close was bound to have some form of emotional effect, whether it shows or not. Tails looked at one of the mints before putting it in his mouth to suck on. As he did so, something came to mind, making him burst out laughing.  
'Err... what's so funny?' Sonic asked, suddenly paranoid and looking around, thinking their was something wrong with him.  
'The leader of that clan I told you about. His name is Minthos. Break it down and you get mint.' Sonic laughed along with him. 'Ooh, Sonic!' Tails suddenly said, quickly breaking out of the laughing fit. 'I left the Tornado back at the Gorge.'  
'Don't worry, I'll get it when I leave,' Sonic reassured him. Tails smiled in response and continued to suck on the mint. One worry lingered in Sonic's own mind, one that he needed an answer to.  
'That day you had those pains. What exactly do you think destroyed the house?' Tails rolled over that day's events, linking it with the information he had been given last night.  
'Hmm... maybe Daetron overloaded with power, so had to release some. Maybe it tore up the house with it?' Tails realised he hadn't actually been given an answer for this bizarre catastrophe, but it was probably the only answer, unless someone had broken in to the house and destroyed it while Tails was squirming on the floor. But Sonic would have seen them leaving, so that theory was ruled out.

The door slid open once more, to Tails' surprise. Sonic, on the other hand, smiled, knowing what was about to come next.  
'TAILS!' As soon as these words sounded out, Tails knew who it was, and prepared for a small, furry bundle to lunge itself on top of him. As expected, Artemis, with a grin from one cheek to the other, came charging in to the room towards the awaiting elder brother on the bed. He leaped on to the bed, clamping himself to Tails' arm and hugging it tightly, rubbing his head softly on his shoulder. Tails scratched him behind the ear as Amadeus walked in behind him. It was obvious that Sonic had the location of Tails' whereabouts at some point.  
'I guess he's forgiven me then,' Tails said, looking up at his father.  
'Or forgotten, could be either,' Amadeus said, shrugging his shoulders, followed by a few more chuckles. Amadeus looked at the screen of the laptop still sitting on Tails' lap and asked 'so what have you been doing on there?' Tails swallowed the mint before explaining.  
'I was looking for some information on a temple mentioned last night. Turns out everyone thought it was made by some people called the 'Pedrans'.'  
'The temple in the desert... The text has never been deciphered to this day, am I right? But what do you mean by 'thought it was made'?'  
'It wasn't made by the Pedrans. They didn't even live near the desert. So whoever came up with that idea really needs to get their facts right. It was the Kitnians that made that temple.'  
'And you know this...?'  
'I got told from Daetron, their last creation, which also pretty much killed them off. We're descended from their last leader too.' For the second time that day, Tails explained the information, only much more briefly. He really didn't want to go in to too much detail this time, it took him long enough to explain to Sonic in the first place.

When he was finished, Artemis was by then reaching boredom and had begun to tug on Tails' ear, trying to get him out of the bed to play with him. Tails had something else in mind. Instead of climbing out of the bed, he pulled the small cub onto his lap and begun to tickle him wildly on the stomach and the neck. Artemis jerked around, laughing uncontrollably as Tails tickled him in every spot he could find that pleased the cub. Everyone else laughed with him as they watched him squirm around.  
'This has got to be the most bizarre birthday in history,' Tails said delightedly as he continued to poke his little brother in every place he could find.

'Breaking news,' the news reporter butted in without any warning. Tails stopped immediately to watch, as did everyone else, while Artemis calmed down. 'The notorious Doctor Eggman is currently attacking Down town Sapphire City. The police have blocked off the area and attempting to hold off the robots. We already have a helicopter in the skies above, so let's go to the action...' The screen switched to a bird's eye view of a street teeming with robots.  
'Looks like I need to be somewhere,' Sonic said, making his way to the door.  
'Wait Sonic, I'm coming with you!' Tails said, struggling to swing his legs over the side of the bed.  
'Tails -!'  
'Sonic, you need – whoa...' Tails struggled to his feet, and as soon as he was upright, nausea kicked in. His head spun so fast, he fell back onto the bed next to a confused Artemis. 'Err... I guess I'm not going anywhere...' Tails said as the nausea slowly calmed down. Sonic chuckled at the kit's remark. Tails chuckled along with him, putting his arm behind his back.  
'I'll be back soon, I promise,' Sonic said, giving Tails, Amadeus and Artemis a thumb's up before walking calmly down the hallway. _Back to normal, I guess _Tails thought to himself as he climbed back in to the hospital bed and taking another mint.

Artemis ran over to the window, jumping up and down frantically to try to look over the top. Amadeus came round and picked him up just in time to see a blue blur race off in to the streets of Sapphire City. _Go get 'em Sonic_ Tails thought to himself, watching Artemis waving to Sonic, despite he was unable to see him.


End file.
